Vaccine
by Tre'zinn
Summary: T for later chptrs. In Amberground, an illness has sprouted up and is spreading fast, and an immoral team of people are looking for the cure, but also exacting harsh taxes and cruel treatment of the victims of the illness.
1. Chapter 1

I own nothing of Tegami Bachi or its characters or original story, it all belong to Asada Hiroyuki. This is not for profit, or any gains for anything. . .Blahblahblah

NOTE: Whenever I say pants, I mean underpants. Thats how they say it, so underpants are pants and pants are trousers.

Amberground, the land of eternal dusk. Technology is at a minimum, the most advanced thing being the man-made sun that is positioned over the Capital city. The land is comprised of ring-shaped continents that are seperated by large ring-shaped rivers. The rich and highest class citizens of Amberground live in the innermost ring continent, closest to the mand-made sun; the capital is called the Anatsuki region. They get the most light, and are quite safe and well off. The middle-class citizens live on the middle ring continent, and they're a bit worse off. Towns are clustered near each other, and the sky is much darker. This region is called the Yuusari region. The outermost ring continent is the lowest class, who live on the darkest and coldest conditions, and in poverty. This poverty-stricken region is called Yadoka.

The only people able to cross the bridges from one region to another are ones that carry government issued papers giving them permission. To get a paper to cross the bridge, a person has to have enough "points". They gain theses points by how much they work and how much rin(money) they make (I think so, it's not exactly clear in the manga).  
Between each town are unsafe, cold and dark regions. The land is quite unforgiving and harsh, and it is here that Gaichuu live. Gaichuu are like gigantic insects, except they are hollow. Their armor has no flesh or anything inside, and theses hollow monsters search out and eat the "Heart" of whatever they can. Gaichuu are huge, hard to kill, and deadly. Swords and guns can't do a thing to them, and the only thing that can kill them is Heart bullets.

A persons "Heart" is who they are, it is their memories and their thoughts. Without Heart, you are an empty shell, with no thoughts or emotions or memories. Gaichuu have no Heart, so they seek it out. Heart bullet guns are carried by Letter Bees, and they shoot small shards of their own Heart into a Gaichuus weak spot, and destroy it from the inside out.  
Letter Bees are employed by the Amberground government and their purpose is to deliver letters from town to town. They usually have to travel long, harsh routes to reach the destination towns and cities, and therefore they can't be weak in mind or body. Letter Bees have a "Dingo" which is basically their partner. Dingos can be any animal that can be trained to help a Bee fight and kill Gaichuu, and watch out for the Bees when needed. It is around the Letter Bee's that my story revolves.

On with the story.

Thousands of stars shone brightly in the sky, but they could not illuminate the complete darkness where a figure lay on the ground. The ground was barren of any flora or fauna, gray dust snaked across the surface like whispy rivers. The wind was cold, colder than usual. A Letter Bee walked across the terrible terrain, towards the figure on the ground. The Bee was short, around the height of a child. Behind him wandered a huge sleek black cat that looked to each side constantly.

"What the. . .?" The Letter Bee said and trailed off once he got close enough to see the figure laying on the ground. He focused his odd cat-like eyes on it and saw that it was a man laying on the ground, and he wasn't wearing enough clothes to stay warm. The Bee ran towards him and skidded to a halt and dropped to his knees beside the man.

"Hey, wake up!" The boy said and grabbed the mans stiff shoulders. He was about to start shaking him, but then he felt how cold and stiff the man really was. He let go and looked at the strangers face closely and pulled back suddenly. The man was dead, his eyes unseeing and blank, lifeless. His face was gray, and coming from his eyes, nose and mouth was a pink-tinged fluid.

"Ugh, Vashuka, he must've died from the cold. . ." The Letter Bee said pulling off his floppy dark hat and running a hand though his short black hair. The black cat came up beside it's partner and made an odd growling noise. The Dingo bent its head down and sniffed the man and snorted and backed up quickly, growling and hissing.

"Hey girl, whats wrong?" The Bee said and backed away from the body as well. Vashuka circled the body and started sniffing the ground. She snorted at the mans footsteps that were being blown away by the wind. The Bee came around and examined them. There were little pools of of the same pink-tinged liquid. The Bee grabbed a rock an poked at it curiously. Whatever it was, it was extremely thick. It grossed him out a little.

"This stuff was coming out of him too. . .was he sick?" The boy said grimly. The cat 'rowred' at him and grabbed his jacket in her teeth and started trying to drag the Bee away.

"Okay we'll keep going, looks like he came from that way. Maybe someone will know him." The Bee said and continued on his way, thoughts troubled by the dead man and the thick pinkish fluid. Outwardly he looked completely unconcerned and even cold-hearted as he walked quickly across the gray dust and against the cold wind.

Lag Seeing walked into the Bee Hive in the Yuusari regions capital, and it was quite busy. It seems that most of the Bees were either coming back from a delivery or going to another one, and Lag hadn't seen so many Bees in one place ever before. Lag's eye that wasn't covered by his silver bangs was amber colored, and it scanned the crowd for someone he knew. Nearly all the Bees there were older than him by a couple years at least, since Lag was only twelve. The only Bees close to his age he saw was his friends Zaji and Connor. Zaji was a couple years older than Lag, and only a few inches taller, which never seemed to bother Zaji. Connor was a bit taller than Zaji, but the same age. Their features couldn't have been more oposite either, Zaji was thin and with a cold face, Connor was quite round with the kindest face and eyes you could find. Their Dingos trailing behind them were very different as well, Zaji's Vashuka was a large, powerful sleek black cat; Connor's Gazu was a lazy bloodhound that was smaller than normal.

Lag's own Dingo wasn't an animal, it was a girl. She wasn't exactly human either, but she resembled a small girl. Her hair was very very long and golden, her eyes ice-blue, and her arms were covered by large mitts. Under the mitts, her arms and hands were that of the legendary monster Maka. She wore a gold-colored dress, and very large pants. On her head was a strange creature that she named Steak. Steak was kind of flat, with extremely short little legs, large eyes and mouth, and a spade tail. She named it Steak because she claimed he was her "emergency food".

"Hey Lag, Niche, how's it going!" Zaji said once Lag and his Dingo reached the other two Bees.

"Good, why are there so many Bees here?" Lag asked and smiled at Zaji and Connor.

"Most of them have been recalled to give reports about anyhing unusuall they've seen." Connor said.

"Has something happened? Like with Reverse?" Lag asked with his voice lowered.

"Nothing to do with Reverse I think." Zaji said and looked around to make sure no one heard them. Lag nodded and sighed in relief. Connor opened his mouth to say something, but a couple men in very fancy suits walked up to them briskly, interupting their conversation.

"Is one of you the Letter Bee Zaji?" One of them asked roughly. He had a very emotionless, non-moving face.

"Yeah, me. Why?" Zaji said.

"We need to talk to you about something in your report, come with us." They said and turned to go.

"Like hell I am," Zaji said in annoyance, he hated getting bossed around, "who are you anyways?"

"Your superiors, come with us now or we'll take you to the supervisors office by force."

"Touch me and regret it." Zaji said but followed them anyways. He started grumbling very audibly about their stupid suits.

"See you later." He called over his shoulder to Lag and Connor.

"I wonder what was in his report?" Lag asked curiously.

"Dunno, he didn't say." Connor said.

Zaji followed the men in the fancy suits to the supervisors office, they knocked harshly and then entered without waiting for a response. Inside the office, Ralgo Lloyd sat at his desk with huge piles of papers that looked like Bee reports, and Zaji's report was in his hands currently.

"Ah, Zaji!" He said and motioned for Zaji to sit at the chair in front of his desk. Zaji stayed standing, still a bit irked by the men in suits.

"Whats up with these guys?" He said and pointed one of the men. The supervisor sighed and brushed some of his long brown hair out of his face.

"We're working with them right now, we just need to clarify a few things about your report." Ralgo Lloyd said. He gave Zaji an odd look that clearly said 'Don't do anything stupid' and very slightly nodded to the men in suits. Zaji got the hint, and he decided it was best to behave. . .for now.

"Okay, what do you need to know?" He asked. The supervisor smiled.

"About the dead man you found. Everything." He said. Zaji sighed and stayed silent for a moment.

"Well. . .He looked like he had died from the cold and exhaustion maybe. His eyes, nose and mouth were leaking this pinkish thick stuff-"

"What kind of 'stuff'?" One of the men asked suddenly and quite rudely. Zaji was going to snap at him, but a glance at the supervisor made him hold himself back.

"Fluid of some kind, just realy thick and gloopy." He said.

"Did you touch it?"

"With a rock, there were puddles of it by his footprints. It looked like he had been walking slowly and staggering."

"Your report says you asked people in the nearest town if they knew him, and that they responded oddly. How oddly?" The supervisor said, and Zaji focused on him, glad to have a reason to ignore the strange men.

"They were a bit jumpy and claimed to not know him, and after I mentioned him they stayed away from me. I left pretty quickly, I wasn't wanted there after I mentioned him." Zaji huffed at the memory. Indeed, pretty much everyone wanted to stay as far from him as possible, and he had no idea why.

"Could you mark on a map exactly where this mans body was?" One of the men asked. Without looking at him, Zaji pulled out his map and pointed to a spot on it. One of the men started making notes on a paper.

"Anything else about the man or that pinkish fluid?" The supervisor asked. Zaji shook his head.

"We need to take this boy with us for our. . .purposes." One of the men said, Zaji bristled at how he said 'boy' like he was only a child. And what the hell kind of purposes did they need him for?

"No." The supervisor said before Zaji could respond. "He is a Bee that we need, and there seems to be nothing wrong with him and he isn't part of your investigation anymore. You may leave Zaji." Ralgo Lloyd dismissed Zaji, and the Bee left without hesitation. Right before he could close the door though, one of the men wrenched it open and stuck his blunt face out.

"Did your Dinog touch the stuff? We may need to take him for investigation." He asked.

"No, SHE stayed as far from it as she could." Zaji said and walked away quickly before he could be pestered anymore. Obviously the supervisor didn't completely trust or like them, and Zaji realy didn't trust or like them at all. He wondered what was so interesting about the dead man, and tried to shove it out of mind. He didn't like the man's cold vacant eyes, it reminded him of too many things.

"Vashuka, keep an eye out for them." He muttered to the big cat, and she 'mrowed' in response and flicked her ears around. Zaji wound his way through the Hive past all the Bees. There were a lot more Bees than he thought, but then again he had never seen them all in one place. He noticed that other men in the same fancy suits were talking to a few other Bees, and that those Bees were just as annoyed. Zaji saw something he didn't notice before, the mens suits had a large logo on the back. He squinted at the nearest one and could just make it out. It was an embroidered snake curling around an upside down sword, and the words "Biological Investigations Team" emblazoned across the symbol in yellow letters.

"Hell no!" He heard a Bee say loudly over the noise in the Hive and Zaji looked around. There was a Bee he knew only by acquaintance. It was the harsh and very detached Mokka, and he was looking furious at the men talking to him.

"We need to take your Dingo in for investigation!" One of the men said, his voice nasaly and a bit squeaky. Mokkas Dingo was a cobra that usually stayed in a pouch he carried at his side. Mokka swore at them profoundly. Zaji was impressed at his large vocabulary.

"Either give it to us or we take it by force!" The nasaly man said loudly. The Bees surounding them stopped talking and started to watch the confrontation. Zaji strolled over and drew his Heart shotgun.

"You people and wanting to take our Dingos away, don't you know how stupid that is?" Zaji said loudly and pointed his gun at the nasaly man.

"Stay out of this, boy." He said and turned back to Mokka.

"Hell no." Zaji said. "I'm getting really anoyed with you people. First you want to take me away for your. . .purposes, then you want my Dingo, and now his? I'm itching to show you how much I realy care about you."

He stood there, aiming his shotgun at the nasally man. Mokka laughed and pulled out his gun too, though he kept it pointed at the ground. Every single Bee around them either put their hands on their guns or just stood there looking menacing, and all kinds of Dingos either growled, hissed, roared, cawed, or extended claws. The men with the suits looked around fearfully at all the angry Bees and Dingos.

One thing that all Bees agreed upon was how much their Dingos meant to them, and at the thought that these men might try to take their Dingos as well got them quite angry.

"STOP!" The loud, commanding voice of Ralgo Lloyd rang out over the whole group and everyones head turned to see the Supervisor walked through the crowd towards the men in suits.

"Bees, put your weapons away." The supervisor came to stand between Zaji and the men in suits.

"Behave and treat our guests nicely, cooperate with them." A bunch of Bees started to protest, but he held his hand up and everyone instantly quieted down.

"But, you people of the Biological Investigations Team, or BIT as you call yourselves, you have no right to take ANY Bee or Dingo by force, unless there is complete certainty that there is something catastrophically wrong with them. Now, is there anyting terribly wrong with Mokka's Dingo that you need to take it away for?"

"No, sir." The nasaly man said and Zaji smirked. He was just a powertripper, trying to shove he Bees around because he thought he could.

"Continue on then." The supervisor gave a last look over the assembled Bees and walked away, back to his office. The men from BIT sulked off and stopped questioning Mokka. Mokka smirked and put a hand in the bag that held his cobra Dingo. He looked at Zaji.

"So they wanted to take YOU away?" He asked. Zaji nodded.

"Do you know whats going on?" Zaji asked coldly. He didn't like Mokka, but if he knew something it'd come in handy.

"No idea, but I saw that Bee-" Mokka pointed to an adult Bee that was talking to his Dingo, which was a large lizard. "Getting questioned for hours, and he seems to know more about what those BIT guys want." Mokka then walked away, to the exit of the Bee Hive. Zaji muttered for Vashuka to stay close behind him, and he went over to the older Bee. He was quite tall, with light brown hair and brown eyes and a prematurely lined face. He looked up from his Dingo and said hi to Zaji in a very cheerful manner.

"Hey, do you know what this is all about?" Zaji asked, not one to beat around the bush. The older Bee sighed.

"I think theres some kind of illness spreading, and they don't know what it is yet. Did you come across anyone that was coughing up pink-like stuff too?" He asked, still sounding very cheery. It was almost sickening to Zaji, his cheeriness, but he didn't show it. He shudered inwardly at the tohught of the dead man.

"No, the one I found was dead. Thanks for the info." Zaji said and walked away, leavig the overly happy Bee taken aback and a bit confused. He went back to talking to his Dingo, and Zaji tried to find Connor and Lag. He spotted them near the door and headed over, shoving some BIT people out of the way and going around the Bees.

"Hey Zaji, what was that all about?" Connor asked and smiled at Zaji.

"They didn't tell me, but asking around there seems to be some illness they want to know more about." Zaji said and Connor and Lag both looked worried quickly.

"Is it fatal?" Lag asked, looking a bit scared.

"I don't know." Zaji said. It wasn't relay a lie, since he didn't know if the man he found was dead from the illness or dead from the cold. He got an uneasy feeling though. It this weren't fatal, then the BIT people wouldn't be on it so fast.

"Either of you ever heard of BIT before?" Zaji asked.

"Nope." Lag said.

"No. But Dr. Thunderland might." Connor said. Zaji nodded and sighed.

"Well, I'm not gonna bother thinking about it anymore for my day off, I'll ask him before I go on my next delivery. See you two around!" Zaji smiled an almost mischevious smile and walked away. Once he was out of the Hive, Connor turned to Lag.

"I can't belive that he just dismiss this. . .oh well, thats Zaji for you." Connor said and smiled.

"I'd go ask Dr. Thunderland, but I have to go right now or I'll be late." Lag said.

"Lare for what?" Connor asked curiously.

"A date!" Niche suddenly piped up, sounding angry.

"It is NOT a date Niche!" Lag said angrily. Connor smiled as he watched the two of them bicker.

"Your going to see that wierd old lady alone-" Niche started, but Lag tried to cut her off.

"You and Steak will be there!"

"It IS a date!"

"No!" Lag sighed after that and said more quietly to Connor, who was a bit confused. "Some lady wants me to take a lot of fragile little things to her family in different towns, so we're meeting about it."

"She's creepy." Niche said and crossed her arms and did her equivalent of pouting--looking angry.

"Don't worry Niche." Lag said and tried to smile encouragingly.

"If she does anything weird I'll bite her! And then push her down!" Niche said and sounded happy at the prospect. Lag put a hand to his forehead.

"Yeah, okay you can push her down if she does something weird, but NO biting!" Lag then turned and smiled at Connor with his huge grin.

"See you later, Connor!"

"Bye Lag, and Niche!" Connor waved. Niche stuck her tongue out at him and hurried after Lag. Connor sighed. Lag realy did have the most unique Dingo he had ever seen. Connor noticed that many Bees started leaving the Hive, bags full and ready for their deliveries. It seems that the BIT people didn't need to question them anymore, and the Bees were leaving as soon as they could, some calling out goodbyes to their friends, some leaving silently. Connor was really glad he was Bee, he got to do so many things that no one else could, travel and deliver the all important letters. It was delivering Heart really.

Letters contained Heart, and Lag had told him once that someone would be so happy to see a letter from a loved one, even if it were one word they would cry with joy. Not all Bees shared this view, and saw letters as just letters to be delivered, nothing more; but Connor, Lag, and maybe Zaji as well thought of letters as Hearts, and felt their job gave them a huge privilege despite the danger.

Hopefully the illness was nothing more than just a minore thing, though Connor doubted that it was just minor if these BIT people were involved. No one seemed to realy like or trust them, and anyone hardly seemed to have heard of them before. Connor sighed and left the Hive, with his bloodhound following.

"Just as long as they don't bother Zaji much more, no one will get hurt." He muttered.


	2. Chapter 2

I own nothing of Tegami Bachi or its characters. Whatever. This is not for profit, or any gains for anything. . .Blahblahblah. Yada yada yada.  
And to my first review- thank you, I had given up because I thought no one was reading this, and your review made my happy. Gauche/Noir wont be in this fic, but I do have another in planning where he is in the spotlight for much of it. Thank you again so much!

Let's get the second chapter going.

Lag arrived at the dark, red-painted door of the stoorfront of "Glasscat's". There was a woman that lived and worked from here, only a few blocks from the Bee Hive. She blew glass ornaments of all sorts; and a day ago the woman had asked to enlist Lag in a series of deliveries far and wide to her family members in different towns. Lag was looking foreward to it, since if he was capable of delivering fragile things that would instantly open him up to different kinds of deliveries and prove he was a very dependable Bee.

Lag pushed the door open, muttering to Niche to be careful. Niche nodded and stood straight as a board, and once they were in she stood clear away from the shelves of glass things. If she broke any, Lag would pay for them and he needed what little money he had for things like food or a place to stay on his delivery. There were glass animals(mostly cats) and colored balls of see-through brilliant shades, glass bowls and plates that were very fancy looking with their decorations and colors, and even tiny glass bells lined up on the shelves.

"They're all so pretty." Niche whispered to Lag. She seemed to be afraid of talkig too loud, as if her voice could knock the glass over and break it. Lag nodded and looked at a tiny green glass bell that had orange and yellow splotches.

"Hello." A voice said and both Lag and Niche jumped up in the air with fright. They had been so busy looking at the glass that they didn't notice the woman standing behind the counter. She wore a long red dress with small black pinstripes, and her long hair was deep brown. She was very pale-skinned and dark-eyed. She smiled at Lag and waved him over to the counter.

"Hello Lag, I'm Julie Glasscat." She said. Lag smiled back.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Lag Seeing and I'll be happy to work with you!" Lag said happily, and Niches face went red with either anger or jealousy, it was hard to tell. She turned around started taking a closer look at the glass animals while Lag and Julie Glasscat talked over the details of what she wanted delivered and when.

"There are six in total, all to be delivered here. . ." She was making marks on a map. Lag leened over and watched her mark the map, making out a route in his head of the best way to deliver all the glass things the fasest, and safest. They payed no attention to Niche and Steak, instantly engrossed in the details about the delivery.

Niche leened in close to get a better look at a glass cat that was green with purple speckles, and Steak fell of his perch on Niches head. She scrambled to catch Steak, who was calling out his trademark "Nuninuninu!" and flailing his stubby legs and spade-shaped tail. Nich managed to catch him, but knocked over a glass orb. She dropped Steak and lunged for the orb, diving to the floor and barely cushoning its fall with her mitted hands. Steak landed on her backside, completely freaked out and trembling.

"Time is of no issue, only getting them there in one piece. . ." Lag and Julie kept talking, not noticing the near disaster that Niche stopped. The Dingo sighed and put the orb back on it's little wooden holder and stepped back away from the shelf. . .right into another shelf. Several things fell off this time, and Niche rushed back and forth grabbing the glass ornaments and gathering them up in her arms. One fell to the floor, and Niche froze in horror. Somehow it managed to not break, which was amazing since it was a fragile-looking glass flower. Niche quicly put the glass things on the shelf, hoping that the Glasscat didn't notice.

"So this is the last one, which is farthest away." Julie Glasscat finished, and Niche went to Lags side quickly, trying to look innocent. Julie smiled at Niche, who went red in the face again.

"Wait, you said six but you only marked five places." Lag said after glancing at the map. Julies smile slipped.

"I forgot again. . .My Uncle died recently, and there was a cat made for him." She said and turned to a shelf behind the counter and one by one put six glass cats on the counter. One was a solid red, one was yellow with white splothes, one was shades of green, one was black, one was a brilliant orange, and one was dark blue and purple. She pointed to the blue and purple one.

"That was his. . .I guess I'll keep it here." She picked up the cat and smiled a sad smile. She put it back on the shelf where it looked quite lonely and turned to Lag.

"So you can get them all there safely?" She asked. Lag nodded. The cats were wrapped up in paper and placed carefully into their own fluffy gray bag that fit into Lags bag.

"I'll get them all safely to their destinations, you wont have to worry." Lag said.

"When your done come back for a visit."

"Sure thing, have a nice day Miss Glasscat!"

Lag and Niche (with Steak on her head) left the little glass store. Lag was happy that he was trusted enough to deliver the fragile glass cats to her family, but also nervous that something would break them. If he had to fight a Gaichuu, he would most likely definately break them. The cats design was a tear-drop shaped body with a thin neck and a big round head with tall pointy ears, so they were liable to lose their heads in a fight. And there were a few spots where he would have to go trhough Gaichuu areas. . .So he needed another Bee to help him fight the Gaichuu, so that the glass cats wouldn't break.

When he thought of someone to help him fight Gaichuu, he thought first of Zaji. But Zaji said he had a day off, and Lag wanted to leave now. Maybe he should just try to do it on his own, it'd be hard to keep the cats intact but he could do it, hopefully.

"What do you think Niche? We'd be able to fight Gaichuu and not break the cats?" Lag asked his Dingo. She looked thoughtful for a moment, then looked up at Lag with her face of determination.

"I'm Lags Dingo, I can just make the Gaichuu move aorund so that you wont have to!" She said and smiled mischeviously at Lag. As always, Niche could say something to make him feel better.

"Thanks Niche, lets get going now." Lag and Niche walked side by side, heading off to their next string of deliveries, momentarly forgetting about the odd illness that the BIT people were asking about earlier, and feeling quite light-hearted.

Zaji sat in his small room, petting a tiny white kitten on his lap. Vashuka lay beside the chair he was sitting in, and she was fast asleep. There was an orange striped cat curled up on his bed, and another one which was white and gray sat on a bedpost. These cats were his companions when he was home, and he never felt alone with them around. Zaji was taking care of them, and a lot of other stray cats as well. He just couldn't pass up a helpless stray, and over time had taken in many and helped them either get healthier or found homes for them. Of course, they proved to sometimes be a bad thing.

On the table beside his chair was a letter to him, from the landlord of the building he rented a room from. the part of it that was visible read "_Because of the increasing numbers of cats around the building, and I know your taking care of them, you will be evicted by noon tomorrow and I expect this months rent by the same time and-" _and the rest of the letter was cut off by Zaji's arm resting on te table.

"Like hell I'm gonna pay him a whole months rent for only a week." Zaji muttered. He planned on only giving the greedy bastard a quarter of the months rent--after all, he had only been here for a week this month anyways. Then he was going to go on his delivery route and once he came back he'd figure out where he'd stay. He realy wanted to kick the landlord, but he figured the sleezy guy would bring some kind of thug with him in case he would get violent. He started to wonder about what kind of revenge he could get without it obviously being him, and an idea was forming that involved cat poop and a match. . .His musings were interrupted though, by a loud sharp knocking on his door. His Dingo instantly woke up and growled at the door; the orange cat, and the white and gray one went under his bed. He held the white kitten in one hand, his gun in the other and stayed in his chair. The only visitors he'd even expect to like would be Lag or Connor, and neither knew where he lived.

"Come in." He called out, and the door opened. A tall dark-skinned woman entered, and a blond-haired green-eyed man followed her. Both looked very muscular and tough, and the woman had an air around her of pure confidence and arrogence. Zaji saw that they wore the same black suits with the same symbol as the BIT people. He instantly didn't like either, especialy the arrogant woman. She eyed him like a piece of meat on display.

"You are Zaji the Letter Bee, correct?" The woman asked in a strong voice. Zaji nodded. Vashuka growled a little bit.

"We have come to ask for your assistance." She said and stepped closer. Zaji tapped his fingers on the gun he held, and she stopped her advance.

"If its the type of assistance that requires my Dingo being taken away, you can leave now." Zaji said coolly. The woman glared at him for a moment, then her face changed to being neutral way to fast. She knew what she was doing. and had efortless control of her expressions and emotions.

"Actually it's a different kind of assistance. The Biological Investigations Team has a caravan of scientists and other people that are going to a forest to collect plants for research, and we need protection from the Gaichuu." She said, and her voice changed from arrogence to respect. It was odd that she was showing Zaji some respect, but maybe she was just worried he was going to shoot her. The thought intrigued the small Bee.

"What's in it for me?" Zaji asked. He was curious, and wondered why the BIT people needed to examine plants. And why him anyways?

"You will be payed very highly, along with the few other Bees we've asked to help us. And you will be a sort of 'leader' when it comes to fighting the Gaichuu themselves."

Zaji thought about it. It would be great to be paid to kill Gaichuu, and she was making it sound like it payed better than his normal job. It was very tempting, but he didn't quite trust the BIT people at this point.

"For how long will I be fighting the Gaichuu for you?" He asked. The woman smiled a bit, showing her perfectly straight white teeth.

"The caravan will take nearly two weeks to reach its destination, then we're there for a week, then two weeks back. We are also offering you. . .permanent employment. BIT has a lot of trips like this one, and the only thing we can't handle is Gaichuu. You will be paid to fight Gaichuu, and that is the only thing you'd do for us." She smiled, because she knew she just hit a nerve when she mentioned being payed to only kill Gaichuu. Zaji realized she must have read his file from the Bee Hive somehow, it was stated there that he preffered fighting Gaichuu over delivering letters. And she was offering a job where he would get paid better than bieng a Bee, and he'd be fighting Gaichuu and not have to do anything else. He almost felt like taking it right then and there, but he stopped himself. Did he realy want to not be a Bee anymore, and help people he didn't even like?

"Can I think about the permanent emplyment part?" He said.

"Yes, but we need an answer soon about the protection of our next caravan." She said and Zaji nodded.

"We'll be back tomorrow in the morning to hear your answer. Have a good day." She turned and lead the way out of Zaji's room. The man gave Zaji a nod before leaving, and they closed the door quickly behind them. It was an odd, suden visit that ended as abruptly as it started. Zaji looked at his Dingo and patted her on the head, calming the aggressive cat.

"Vashuka, we'll see how they are when I take that mission for the next caravan. Do you want to be my Dingo as a Bee, or my partner in protecting those BIT people?" Zaji said thoughtfully to his Dingo, who just mrowred and curled up to go to sleep again. Zaji sighed.

On one hand, he had enjoyed being a Bee, killing the Gaichuu and delivering letters. . .going on the harder deliveries with Lag or Connor, or both. He also had a certain respect among other Bees since he was so accomplished at killing Gaichuu. But working for BIT was only killing Gaichuu, which is what he really wanted to do. And he'd be getting paid better, which would mean he could afford a better place. . .where he could have all the cats and take care of them without getting evicted. But he'd have to work with those BIT people, and he didn't know if he wanted to. They had wanted to take away Vashuka, after all. He was confused now, and wondered what he should do.

"I'll figure it out." He said. Vashuka mumbled odd cat noises in her sleep.

Lag and Niche arrived at the first destination for the Glasscat delivery, and they were a bit surprised. The small town of the Yuusari region was almost hostile towards Lag and Niche. Everyone glared at them and walked past, or bumped into him on purpose. Lag held onto the bag with the glass cats carefully, hoping that no one would do something that would break any of them.

"Want me to kick them?" Niche asked him.

"No! Just because they don't like us for some reason dosen't give us the right to be mean to them." Lag said and tried to smile at the people around him. They all glared back. Lag gulped and just tried to find the house as fast as he could so he could leave soon. He followed the rickety street signs to Couv street. The house was a short wide one with lots of windows, and out front was a large cream-colored dog with a bushy tail. It was a friendly dog, it's tail wagged when Lag came near. Lag pat it on the head and knocked on the door. After a few moments it opened and a young woman stood there. She smiled at Lag.

"It's always nice to see a Letter Bee! Come on in!" She said and stood aside, Lag thanked her gratefully and entered. The house was small but very cozy, there were a lot of chairs with pillows and a large table in the kitchen. The young woman sat at the table and gestured for Lag to sit.

"So I'm gueassing Julie sent you with a glass cat?" She said and smiled at Lag's surprised face. "She told me before she was going to find a trustworthy Bee and send a kitty my way."

"Are you her sister? You look a lot like her." Lag asked and started fishing around in the fluffy bag for the right cat. Niche sat at the table and watched the woman curiously. She had long dark hair, pale features and nearly the same eyes as Julie's, though a bit lighter.

"Yes we are. My names Heather-May."

"I'm Lag Seeing." Lag said and carefully placed the paper-wrapped cat on the table. Heather-May just as carefully unwrapped it, and smiled at the white-spotted yellow glass cat.

"Thank you very much Lag, for getting something so important to me here!" She got out of her chair and placed the yellow kitty on the mantle over the fire in the kitchen, amidst a few carved animals and pieces of driftwood. The shiny and colorful glass cat looked like a brilliant jewel among the dulls things.

"Do you want some tea and bread?" She asked, and Lag nodded.

"That would be great!" He said.

"I hope no one out there was too mean." Heather-May said and poured three cups of tea. "The townspeople are feeling a bit angry towards the government and they seem to take it out on Bees."

"Why are they angry?" Lag asked curiously. Heather-May smiled at him and handed him and Niche each a warm bun.

"The taxes have been raised dramaticly recently, but the government wont say why." She said it almost like a question, probably wondering if Lag knew why. He had no idea.  
"I don't know why they would up the taxes, and they haven't told us either." Lag said. Heather-May smiled and they drank their tea in companionable silence. He felt comforta  
ble around her, at ease.

"Well, I'm glad that you came by, and don't worry about the townspeople, they normally respect all Bees." Heather-May said once that they had finished their tea. "They just need to remember that Bees aren't the ones that raised the taxes."

"That's okay, I need to be going as soon as I can so I wont be staying in town or anything." Lag said. They said their goodbyes, and left Heather-Mays cozy little house. The walked down the wide street, and Lag still just smiled at the glaring people. Though some now were looking a bit less hostile, and a few even sent meek smiles back.

"You've been quiet." Lag said to Niche as they left the little town behind, their footsteps forming little clouds of gray dust on the barren terrain.

"There was something wrong with her, like she was sick." Niche said. Lag was confused, but he didn't ask her what she meant by that. Niche often said odd things, and trying to figure it out hardly ever worked. And Heather-May had looked completely fine to him, actually very healthy.

Lag and Niche walked across the Amberground terrain, crossing shallow valleys, hills, fields of tall grass and open spaces of barren emptiness. The cold wind moaned around them, and the thousands upon thousands of clustered stars shone down on them brightly. There was no difference to day and night, only stars and darkness once you got away from the man-made sun that never moved. Lag and Niche found a little valley that shielded them well from the wind, and they made camp there. Lag stopped to look up at the stars before laying down for sleep. His Heart felt sad sometimes for some reason when he looked up at the stars. He remembered when he was younger and Gauche Suede had "delivered" him to his Aunt. The older Bee had looked up at the stars every night before sleep as well, and Lag continued to do so now. He missed Gauche, but decided not to dwell on it for tonight. He smiled whe he saw how fast Niche fell asleep. He lay down beside her and fell asleep quickly as well, happy.

He was happy he was a Bee, he got to deliver "Hearts" to people, people who were seperated from their friends and family and would cry in joy at seeing a letter from someone they loved. Being a Bee was a great thing, something that honorable and admirable. He traveled lots in bad terrain or weather, but he never felt alone since he had Niche at his side or another Bee. There was also a sort of companionship amongst Bees, and even though some Bees didn't like other people they would help each other without a moments thought.  
The Bee and his odd Dingo (and don't forget Steak) slept soundly that night, not worrying about anything. Everything was well, but not for long sadly.


	3. Chapter 3

I do not own Tegami Bachi/Letter Bee or it's characters blahblahblah. First chapter has it all, along with the descripton of Amberground and basic functions of the Tegami Bachi world.  
Chapter Three!

Zaji woke up extra early, and as soon as he was up he was getting dressed and ready to go and packing his bags. He had very few possessions, they all fit into one extra bag that was a lot like the one he used to carry the letters on long deliveries. His thoughts turned to delivering letters, and he wondered briefly if he would ever deliver a letter again. He paused, trying to decide what his Heart would want. He couldn't tell, but he supposed the answers would come once he was helping the BIT people on their next caravan expedition to the forest. If he didn't like the job, or missed being a Bee too much, he would just say no to their permanent employment.

"Vashuka, guard the place." Zaji said to his sleepy Dingo and got his dark blue jacket and boots on. Vashuka slept a lot on their days off, but she would wake up in an instant if there was something wrong. Zajiput his hat and scarf on last of all, and he went out the door quickly, with his extra bag. He walked quickly, towards Sylvette Suede's place. He figured he could trust her, and he had no other friends other than Lag or Connor, so he was going to ask her to keep an eye on his little bag of personal possesionsthat he couldn't take with him. The streets of the Yuusari capital were empty, almost eerily so. The cold wind was slowly streaming between the buildings and tugged gently on Zaji'sjacket and scarf. The cobbled street seemed to glow in the starlight, and his boots made almost no sound with his light, quick steps. Zaji soon reached Sylvettes place; she rented a small section of a larger building, and Lag in turn rented a room from her. Lag would be either asleep now or on a delivery though.

Zaji was surprised to see that Sylvette's lights were on, but he was also glad. He didn't want to wake her up so early, and since she was already up he didn't have to worry too much about being rude. Zaji sighed and entered the building; he went up a flight of stairs and found the door to Sylvette's flat. He knocked quietly, and after a moment he heard her voice.

"Who is it?" She asked.

"Zaji." He replied, and the door opened after the click of a lock or two. Sylvette smiled, but looked surprised at the same time. She was in a wheelchair, and rolled backwards so he could get past her and into the room. She closed the door quickly and turned to him.

"Lag's not here, if you're looking for him." She said.

"I'm not looking for Lag." Zaji said, and once again he wondered if he would get to visit Lag, or Connor much if he took the permanent job from BIT. . .

"I wanted to ask you a favor," Zaji said, and Sylvette raised an eyebrow at him, "could you look after this-" Zaji held up the extra bag he carried, "-while I'm gone?"

"Are you moving or something?" She asked and reached out for the bag. Zaji handed it to her, and she wheeled over to the corner of the room where a closet stood. She opened it and carefully put the bag on the floor of it.

"Sort of. . .But I'll be gone for a while before I can come back and try to find another place."  
Sylvette gave him an odd smile, like she knew that he was getting evicted. Well, she was scarily intuitive, according to Lag.

"Well, I need to go. Thanks very much, Sylvette." Zajisaid and turned to go. He hesitated at the door, wanting to say something about his mission with BIT, but decided against it and he opened the door.

"Goodbye Zaji, see you in a while." Sylvette said sweetly.

"'Bye Sylvette." Zaji said and left, closing the door quietly behind him. He walked even quicker now, on his way to the Hive. He was hoping that either Aria or the supervisor would be there, he wanted to let them know he would be abstaining from deliveries for a while to protect the BIT people. They'd understand, and the supervisor owed him a big favor for something Zaji did for him a while ago anyways.

The large and imposing front of the Hive and it's other connected government offices loomed above him almost menacingly. It was almost like it somehow knew he was thinking of not being a Bee anymore. The indside was mostly empty and somewhat drafty. Zaji went to the supervisors office and knocked softly. He waited a second, then a voice inside told him to come in. He opened the door slowly and entered. The tall form of Ralgo Lloyd, the supervisor of the Letter Bees, stood at his floor-to-ceiling windos, looking out.

"I saw you coming, isn't this a bit early?" He said, sounding a bit troubled and deep in thought. Zaji always felt like he should be very respectful around the supervisor, and this was a moment where he obeyed that feeling.

"Mr. Lloyd, I'm not gonna make any deliveries for a while." Zaji said, talking quietly but osmehow his voice filled the office and seemed to shout.

"Vacation?" The supervisor said, but almost jokingly. He probably knew Zajiwas losing his room he rented, he somehow knew everything that went on with the Bees.

"No, I'm doing a job for BIT. They're researching something in a forest and need me to protect them from Gaichuu for the whole trip."

"Yes, I heard that they think a certain plant with medicinal properties may help cure this odd new illness going about. You're excused from deliveries until you return, but I expect you to carry out your Bee duties as soon as you return." Ralgo Lloyd said and turned away from the window and looked Zaji in the eyes. Zaji lowered his cat-like eyes to the ground and nodded.

"I got to go now, they'll be leaving soon." Zaji said and turned to leave the room.

"Zaji, one thing." The supervisor said and put his hand on the short Bee's shoulder. Zaji looked up at him, and was surprised how serious his face was.

"Be careful, sometime the BIT organization conducts themselves in immoral and dangerous ways, watch your back." Then he abruptly turned away and looked out the window again.

"Do you not trust them?" Zaji said. Zaji himself didn't.

"Not realy, but they are trying to find a cure as fast as they can, and are the only ones that can do so. I'm glad in a way that you're going to help them, the sooner they get their research done and make a vaccine, the sooner the sick will get better." He said it sadly, and almost with anger.

"Do you know someone who's ill?" Zaji asked, and wished at once he could take it back. It was a rather personal question.

"Aria Rink sent a note, she's sick and coughing up pinkish fluid." He said and sighed. Zaji quietly left the room, closing the door behind him. He felt sad that Aria was ill, but he did his best to push it aside and ignore it. No use feeling sad for anyone, it didn't help one bit.

He started making his way back home--which wouldn't be his home in a couple hours--and back to Vashuka. He was quick, but the BIT people beat him to it. The dark woman was standing outside his door, her long dark hair bunched up in a tight bun. The pale green-eyed man stood beside her, and they both gave him eerysmiles once he reached them. They were both much taller than him and seemd to enjoy looking down on him, which annoyed Zajigreatly. He wanted to give both a smack in ribs, but he decided not to.

"Have you made your choice?" The woman asked. Zaji nodded.

"I'll take this mission, but i'm still thinking about the permanent employment part." Zaji replied and unlocked the door. He entered, and the BIT people stayed outside. He took an envelope that had the rin he was giving the landlord out of his bag which carried letters and placed it on the table.

"C'mon Vashuka." Zaji said and his big black Dingo stretched and went to his side. Zaji had already gotten rid of all the cats, so he closed and locked the door.

"Ready?" The woman asked. She started to walk away without waitng for Zaji'sresponse, with the tall pale man walking beside her like a shadow.

"Yeah." Zaji sighed and followed, uneasy. Vashuka padded besdie him, blinking away her drowsiness.

"You can't wear your Bee uniform on this mission." The woman said and smiled at Zaji's surprised expression.

"I don't have any clothes other than the Bee uniform that would be good enough to wear for fighting Gaichuu." He said after a short pause. The BIT people smiled.

"We figured as much, so once we get to the caravan we have a BIT uniform that should fit you." The woman said. Zaji looked at her and the man, thinking how difficult those suits looked to fight Gaichuu in. The woman seemed to know what he was thinking though.

"Your uniform, as a Gaichuu fighter of BIT, would be different than ours." She said and Zaji nodded. He followed the woman closely. He didn't like either of them very much, they were too cold and calculated and professional; but he preferred to be near the woman than the silent and staring pale man.

"My name's Terene by the way. This is my colleague Florence." She said. Zaji nodded, not realy caring.

"I have a few questions about how you fight Gaichuu." Terene said. Zaji nodded to show that he would answer them.

"Do Bee's often need backup to fight Gaichuu?" She asked.

"Only if it's a realy hard to fight Gaichuu, or lots, but I can kill most with just my Dingos help." Zaji replied. Terene looked at him, as if expecting more of an answer than that. Zaji didn't elaborate any further though, and she continued.

"When Bee's do help each other fight Gaichuu, does it matter if someones the leader or who kills it?"

"Depends entirely on who knows what to do, and what kind of Dingos and Heart bullets they have."

"Would you be able to kill a hard to fight Gaichuu on your own?"

"It depends on how much Heart I have and how long the fight goes on." Zaji said and wondered why he getting the third degree. Maybe no other Bees agreed to come and help defend the BIT caravan, ad Zaji would have to fight off everything on his own. He didn't like that idea, especially since if they had to fight a realy hard Gaichuu and no other Bee was there to help he'd have to use up a lot of Heart.

He suddenly wondered what would happen if he joined BIT and he used up to much Heart. Normally, when a Bee uses to much Heart they need to either take a long break or Aria Rink would use her restorative Heart bullet on the Bee. But if he was with BIT, he doubted that Aria would restore his Heart. He wondered how she was doing, and hoped that the illness didn't take it's victims too quickly. She was a strong woman though, so she should be okay for now.

"Okay, we're here." Terene said and stopped. Zaji hadn't realy noticed where they were going; being too lost in thought, but now that he did he was surpised to arrive so soon. There was the cravan, made up of four large wagons, each driven by two of the very large, powerful and slow Miss Mascara lizards. Zaji hadn't seen so many of the odd lizards in one spot before. There were also a few large canvas tents, and some smaller ones.

"Follow me to where you can change into your BIT uniform." Florance said, and Zaji was surprised at how deep the pale man's voice was. Terene walked off quickly to go talk to a group of people that looked like the ones in charge.

"Okay." Zaji said and followed the strange man to one of the smaller tents. Vashuka sat outside the tent and watched everyone around her, while zaji ducked inside. Inside was mostly empty except for a pile of clothes ona small table that were for Zaji. Florence closed the tentflap behind Zaji, and the Bee quickly got undressed and put on the BIT uniform. His was much different than the fancy suits that the other BIT people wore. The trouserswere plain black, with an embroidered red BIT logo on one of the back pockets. Then went on a plain white shirt that buttoned up, and over that a black jacket that Zajithought was too short for him, but that might have just been their style. It had a different red logo embroidered on the breast pocket, it was a gun crossed withthe sword, and the BIT snake coiled around both. The word "Guardian" was stitched in under the logo. So he was a guardian huh? But he was also still a Bee, so did that make him a Letter Guardian or a Guardian Bee? He smirked to himself and strapped his gun holster on, and put on a red scarf that was under the other clothes. Zaji folded up his uniform and stuffed it into the bag that normally carried letters. He tried readjusting the short jacket, but there was no getting around that it barely covered his ribcage and didn't even have buttons to do it up. It annoyed him, but he just ignored it.

Zaji exited the tent, and found that Florence was gone and Terene was there instead. She had also gotten changed, instead of her fancy suit she wore a more travel-apropriate leather jacket and trousers. Vashuka sniffed Zaji and started rubbing her face against his leg. He was glad the trousers weren't a color that show up black hair.

"The caravan will be leaving in a few minutes, are you ready?" Terene asked.

"No other Bees came?" Zaji asked, but he didn't realy need to. He already knew that he was going to have to fight Gaichuu on his own.

"No, only you." Terene said and smiled. She seemed to think that having only one Bee was good idea. Maybe they didn't want to pay more than one person.

Zaji hoped he didn't end up using too much of his Heart protecting people he didn't like in the first place.

Lag and Niche arrived at their next destination, and were happy to find that people here were friendlier. The waved and smiled at Lag, and people respectively got out of his way as he made his way down the crowded street. The street was very smoothly paved with stones, and was worn from years and years of trafic. This town was small, but it was almost completely a trader town. Nearly every street had kiosk's selling cloth, food, knick-knacks, jewellery and many other things. Lag looked at the sellers and buyers as he went, but he never stopped. He was going to deliver another glass cat, and the house he needed to get to was on the other side of town. He overheard bits of conversation as he went, and he was troubled by what he heard.

"I heard that the taxes are going to go up even higher-"

"Did you know there's a Bee working for those damn BIT people? Traitor he is-"

"One of them Biological whatever people is going to come and personally take the tax money from us, like door to door taking our money!"

"Yeah, and the bastards going to have a special guard so we can't do anything even if we wanted-"

Lag stopped listening and shook his head. The Biological Investigations Team was stirring up too much trouble over nothing.

"Lag, that guys sick, stay away from him." Niche said and pointed to the man right in front of them. He was a very tall burly man, and he was coughing. People starred at him and started to back away. The man turned, and Lag saw that there was a thick-looking pinkish fluid coming from his nose and mouth. He coughed more and staggered down the street, clearing a path befor him.

"He didn't cough on anyone did he?" A tall skinny man in a red suit shouted out. He had a few thug-like men around him, and he pointed to the man that was coughing. A bunch of the men ran for him, but Lag didn't see what they did.

"Nope, got out of his way I did."

"No, he was coughing into the wind and it blew back at himself."

"No sir."

"Hell no."

"What's wrong with him?" Lag asked the tall red-suited man. The man looked around, and then down and seemed startled to see Lag standing right at his feet, looking up at him.

"Oh hello Bee." He said and smiled. He had a lot of crooked teeth and a crooked smile. His eyes were even crooked, the left on pointed in the wrong direction. Or was it the right one pointing the wrong way?

"A little behind the times are ye?" He asked and chuckled.

"No one realy is talking about it." Lag replied, feeling a bit annoyed at the man but not showing it.

"Well, theres this here illness going about, and it's noticable by that pinkish fluid ye saw, and lots of coughing."

"Is it realy bad?"

"Yeah, if it goes long enough you die. Someone here was sayin' that yer lungs fill with that pinkish fluid, and ye innerds start to have sores. Eventually ye die from bleedin', on the inside. No cure yet."

Lag shivered, it sounded like a gruesome illness and he felt a moment of panic about being so near the man that was coughing.

"So thatswhy BIT has upped the taxes, so they can afford to try and find the cure. Most people be complainin' abou' it, but I think it's a good idea. They need to find the cure as fast as they can, and with ye' monies they can."

"But there outright robbing us!" A man joined in the conversation. He was angry-looking and he glared at the red-suited crooked man.

"You can probably afford the tax hike, but I can't!" He shouted. Another few people looked like they were going to get into the arguement as well, so Lag started walking away quickly.

"Stay close Niche." He whispered to the girl and she nodded and stuck by his side. Behind him he could hear the street start to get rowdy, and people shouting at each other. He hated how people would fight over things so easily, but there was nothing he could do. And he wanted to deliver that glass cat as soon as he could, so it's one less cat he had to worry about breaking by accident.

Down a few winding streets, across a few open areas filled with traders selling there wares, and he arrived at the destination, a large building that housed a few people renting rooms, like the one he and Sylvette lived in. Lag entered and found the right one, number eight, and knocked. There was no answer so he knocked again. After a moment, and Lag was about to turn to leave, and the door opened a tiny bit. There stood behind the door a very tall man with a very bushy mane of hair on his head and a large beard. He had odd green-blue-gray eyes, and he smiled at Lag.

"Hello Bee. Sorry but I wont let you in, I don't want any risk of getting that sickness." He said, sounding very cheery and he reminded Lag briefly of Julie and Heather-May.

"Are you Julie Glasscats brother?" Lag asked. He nodded, and Lag opened his bag and handed him the wrapped up glass cat. His eyes went wide and he unwrapped it, to reveal the cat that was shades of green.

"Thank you Bee!" He said. Lag handed him a paper to sign, and once he had he smiled and said goodbye to Lag, and shut the door quickly.

"He was odd." Niche said.

"Did he look ill to you? Like Heather-May did?" Lag asked Niche as he lead the way back out of the building.

"No, he was fine." The Dingo said dismissively. She didn't seem to worry about it too much, but she was odd that way.

"People are really worried about this illness, but there dosen't seem to many that are actually ill." Lag said after a minute of silence. He was watching the people again, and for the most part they looked pretty normal. He saw no one coughing, and no signs of the pinkish thick stuff. Lag found a small Inn to stay at, it was a short square building made of gray stones, and thee sign above said it was the "Firehand Inn". Lag entered, hoping he wouldn't have to pay too much. There was a woman at the desk who smiled at him.

"Welcome to the Firehand Inn." She said. Lag smiled at her and stood at the desk.

"How much do rooms go for?" He asked.

A room for one-" She started but stopped, wracked by a sudden coughing fit. She faced away from Lag, and through her hand on her mouth Lag saw a small stream of pinkish fluid. He backed away.

"Is there anything you need?" He asked her. She shook her head, and the coughing subsided after a minute. She cleared her throat and cleared more of the pinkish fluid from her eyes. She was breathing heavily.

"I th-think I need a d-d-doct-" She didn't finish her sentence, because as she spoke she was getting up out of her chair and she suddenly collapsed on the floor.  
"I'll be right back with a doctor, don't worry!" Lag said loudly and bolted from the Inn. He ran into the street and looked around. He had no idea where a doctor would be, so he did the best he could.

"I need a doctor! Theres a woman ill at the Inn and she needs help!" Lag shouted, and the people around him stopped what they were doing and stared.

"The Firehand Inn?" A boy that was a few years younger than Lag asked, and Lag nodded.

"I'll be right back, I know where the doctor is!" He said and ran off. Lag didn't know what to do, so he went back to the Inn.

"Don't touch her Lag, or breathwhat she breathes." Niche whispered to him as he went through the door, and he nodded. The woman was still on the ground, unconscious. Lag gulped and stayed at the corner of the room. Part of him was straining to go to her and try to do his best to help, but another part of him was yelling at him to stay away, so he wouldn't get ill too. He was spared from that internal conflict though, since the door banged open and the boy ran in with a young man behind him. Lag assumed he was the doctor, for he went to the womans side and started checking her breathing and heart rate. He turned to Lag suddenly.

"Was she coughing when you cam here?" He asked.

"No, she looked perfectly fine and then she suddenly started coughinand that stuff came out of her mouth an eyes, and then she collapsed." Lag said quickly, hoping to help.

"She was fine earlier. . .I visited." The boy that had brought the doctor said. The doctor looked worried.

"Were you close to her or did you touch her?" The doctor asked Lag. The Bee shook his head.

"You both should go." He said and turned back to the woman on the floor. Lag and the younger boy left quickly, but both stopped outside the door. Niche was tugging at Lag, trying to make him go farther away from the Inn.

"Do people normally get sick that fast?" Lag asked the boy, hoping he'd know something about the illness.

"I heard it goes fast, but I didn't think that fast. . like a couple days of coughing then your symptoms get worse. Not a quarter-day. I need to go and tell Mama about this." The boy gave Lag a nod and ran off, and Lag finally let himself get pulled away by Niche.

"We should leave, in case theres more sick people." She said and Lag nodded. He sometimes wondered if his Dingo made more decisions than he did. He didn't care though, he was feeling a bit paranoid about people around him. Then he had to mentally shake himself. He couldn't be paranoid, his job was all about getting things to people! He shouldn't think that their automatically sick and dangerous to him, that wouldn't be very Bee-like. He sighed.

The stars overhead were bright and silent, the Bee and Dingo (and don't forget Steak on the Dingos head) walking in as much silence as the spots of light above.

"If I got ill and. . .well, what would you do?" Lag asked. Niche suddenly glared at him.

"You wont die with me as your Dingo! I'll lick you better." She said. Lag smiled at her.

"Okay then." He said. But deep down, he worried. If he got sick before there was a cure. . .He didn't want to die. As much as he didn'tlike the BIT people, he hoped they found a cure as soon as possible.

"Heather-May was sick like that woman wasn't she?" He asked Niche. She nodded sadly. Lag closed his eyes for a moment, fighting tears. He didn't know her very well, but he would be very sad if she died.


	4. Chapter 4

I do not own Tegami Bachi/Letter Bee or it's characters blahblahblah. First chapter has it all, along with the descripton of Amberground and basic functions of the Tegami Bachi world.  
NOTE: This hasn't been thuroughly checked for spelling mistakes yet.

Chapter four.

Zaji felt sleepy, he wasn't used to sitting around all day. He was usually on the move, on some delivery, or just sitting at home on his days off and sleeping. But sitting in the big wagon that carried the rest of the BIT people all day was making him drowsy.

The caravan that was made up of four large wagons moved slowly, becuase of the lizards that pulled it along. The lizards were gigantic, way bigger than any horse, and they were very slow and ferocious. One wagon was for the purpose of the BIT people--and Zaji realised that he was one of the BIT people, for now at least--to ride in, and the other three were for bringing back specimens from the forest they were going to examine. No one would tell Zaji where the forest was, but he could guess from the direction. There had been no Gaichuu, and some of the other people on the Guardian unit were starting to make jokes behind Zaji's back. Zaji didn't bother with them though, and the jokes just bounced right off. He knew that a Gaichuu would attack eventually, and once he killed it they'd be a little less eager to make fun of him.

The caravan had been moving for about two days, and they hardly ever stopped. The Miss Mascara lizards didn't need to stop often, only to drink more water. Zaji was fine with the constant movng though. They had passed by a town earlier, and most people stopped and starred at the caravan. This made some of the BIT people nervous, but Zaji didn't realy know why. All in all they were a fidgety lot, Zaji himself seemed those most at ease was laid back, which was odd because of the internal turmoil going on in his head.

Suddenly at his side Vashuka started growling, and Zaji jumped up imediatly. The other people of their little Guardian unit looked a bit startled but didn't do anything. Zaji went to the front of the wagon and stared around them. His odd cat-like eyes scanned the most barren horizon, each little hill and valley passed under his gaze.

"What's up?" The driver, an elderly man with a long beard said. Zaji didn't answer until he saw it.

"Gaichuu. Keep going, don't bother stopping. In fact, go faster." Zaji man nodded right away and obeyed instantly. He seemed to respect Zaji more than any of the BIT people. The elderly man drove the lead wagon, and the ones behind him were suposed to match his pace. He shouted at the big lizards, and made them go as fast as the big reptiles could go. It wasn't that fast, but it was enough. Behind them the other wagons started to pick up the pace too and they heard a few confused shouts.

Of in the distance were not one, but two Gaichuu. They were simple to kill, since they were slow and all you had to do was get above them. Zaji looked around and saw a little valley ahead.

"Can you go in there?" He said. The man smiled.

"That was our path to begin with."

"Good."

"What's going on?" One of the Guardian unit came out front, confused.

"Stay back there with the others." Zaji said and pointed to the Gaichuu that were heading towards them. The man nodded and went back and started talking excitedly with the others. Zaji heard them taking bets on about how fast he'd fail. He smirked, wondering if it crossed their minds that if he did fail, they'd get their Hearts eaten by the Gaichuu. He stopped thinking about that though, since the valley was fast aproaching. He got to the edge of the wagon and leened outward.

"What are you-?" The driver started but stopped. Zaji had jumped from the wagon right when they entered the valley and onto a path. His Dingo followed him and they both ran above the wagons. Zaji could run just about as fast as the big lizards pulling the wagons. The Bee--well, Guardian, and his Dingo ran along the top of the valley.  
Something about the valley must've scared the Miis Mascara lizards though, they slowed dramaticly and wouldn't go any faster. Zaji heard the drivers shouting at their lizards to get going, but the stubborn things wouldn't move any faster than they wanted to.

"This makes it more complicated." Zaji said to Vashuka.

"Get down there and attract the Gaichuu down there and not up here." He said and his Dingo ran to the bottom of the valley and prowled back and forth across the entrance. The two Gaichuu were coming closer, and Zaji would start the fight soon. The caravan was having more issues, since the lizards stopped completely. there was more shouting, and people were starting to get out to try and get the lizards moving. Zaji sighed and aimed a Heart bullet to just above the lead wagon. He fired a weak shot, and it hit the Valley wall nearby and scared the lizards. They instantly started moving again, at a decent pace.

And the Gaichuu was upon them. The smaller one entered the valley first, and the giant armored beetle rushed forward when it saw how close it's prey was. Vashuka ran ahead of it, and dodged back and forth. The Gaichuu was lunging foreward with it's massive horned head, and was opening the armor that went over it's wings. Which was exactly what Zaji needed.  
"Easy kill." He muttered and ran towards the Gaichuu. Without hesitation, he jumped off the small valley's wall and almost directly over the Gaichuu.

"Cry out, AOTOGE!" He shouted the last word and fired down at the Gaichuu's weak spot. The massive moving armor was hollow, and the moment Zaji's brilliant Heart bullet hit the small opening the whole thing stopped and light shone out through all it's joints and gaps in the armor. It fell to the ground in pieces, blocking the end of the valley. The next Gaichuu clambered over it. This kind had wings, but they were too small for them to actually fly, which Zaji was glad for. He landed and rushed away from it.

"Vashuka, turn it around." He said and backed up. The big black cat ran forward, right between the frong legs. The Gaichuu lunged downward with its horned head and struck the ground, leaving a small crater. The monster turned around quickly, going for the Dingo that was spitting and hissing at it. Zaji ran ahead, and he jumped up from rock to rock until he made it to the top of the valley. He was going to jump over it like he did with the last one, but the Gaichuu turned on him at the last moment. Zaji ran along the edge, the path he was one was quite narrow. The Gaichuu lunged at him and it's head destroyed part of the valley wall right behind him. It turned around and was going to attack him again, but he fired a shot right at it's face. The Heart bullet was a weaker one, meant only to distract it, so it wasn't that bright. The Gaichuu stopped and that gave Zaji enough time to jump. He fired A stronger Heart bullet down at it's weak spot. The Gaichuu instantly lit up and brilliant light flooded the area. Zaji fell through the air and landed on the Gachuu's fallen armor, he stumbled off and landed on the ground, somehow not injuring himself. His Dingo came to his side, and he walked away fom the two Gaichuu casually, as if nothing more than the normal had happened. There was dust all around him, and when he walked out of it he saw a few of the BIT Guardian unit and Terene, the dark woman that had first talked to him.

"That was fun." Zaji said. The others just stared at him, a bit ingracefully.

"Let's get back to the caravan, there still moving, but slowly." Terene said and they all walked side by side towards the other end of the valley.

"So who won the bet?" Zaji asked the other two Guardian unit men, and they looked away, embarased. Neither answered, and Zaji smirked. At least now the other BIT people wont make fun of him. His Heart felt hardly any worse for wear, but he hoped he didn't have to fight too many Gaichuu on thos long trip.

Once he was back in the wagon, he slept beside his Dingo, with her fuzzy black head laying on his lap. The other BIT Guardians watched him, almost scared. Once he was asleep they started talking in whispers, casting glances in his direction to make sure he had not woken up and heard them.

Lag and Niche arrived at the next little grouping of houses and farms. The town was so small, it wasn't originally given a name. After a while people reffered to it as No-Town, though Lag thought it should have been No-Name or something. Everyone greeted him happily, asked him if he needed any food for cheap or a place to stay, Lag smiled back and walked on, looking for the woman he was going to deliver the glass cat to. He found her house quickly enough, and in fact she was right outside. It was a small cozy little house, and outside there was the woman he suspected was Mrs. Smelt. She was watching over two small children that ran around the yard happily, laughing and waving their arms.

"Hello, Mrs. Smelt I have a delivery for you from Julie Glasscat!" Lag called out before opening the gate on the fence and walking towards her. She smiled happily and met him halfway.  
"Hey Bee, how's your day going?" She asked.

"Good, and you?" Lag replied, and noticed her smile faltered a bit. Her face clouded over for a moment, but she went back to smiling, though it was forced.

"Uh, here it is, and can you sign the paper please?" Lag said and handed her the wrapped up cat and a paper to sign. She signed, and curiously opened the wrapped-up package. The bright red glass cat fell into her hand and she chuckled a bit.

"Thank you so much!" She said held the cat up to the starlight.

"You're welcome, have a nice day Ma'am!" Lag said and left, with Niche following behind. After they were out of earshot, Lag asked Niche quietly,

"Niche, did any of them look sick?"

"No." She replied. He didn't know how she could tell, but she was strange so he didn't bother to think about it. For Niche, nothing was normal.

Lag wondered what could have had Mrs. Smelt worried, but no one in the small town appeared ill, so he didn't think about it too muh. He had to deliver two more cats still, and he was planning to stop in a couple places on his return to the Hive. He was going to investigate more about the illness, becuase he was worried about Heather-May. And that lady from the Inn he had stopped at in the last town. He wanted to know if it was really fatal, or if it could be slowed or stopped.

"Lag, what's wrong?" Niche asked suddenly, watching Lag's face.

"I'm worried about Sylvette, Connor, Lag and all the other people I know. What if they die?" Lag said and tears came to his eyes. He didn't want to lose any of them, and he didn't know what he'd do if any of them did die.

"Zaji can kill more Gaichuu than anyone else, he wont die easily. Sylvette is Sylvette, and Connors too fat to get sick!" Niche said with simple finality, as if that summed up everything. Lag laughed despite his tears, and felt better.

"Yeah, I shouldn't think too much about that kind of stuff, I just hope BIT get the cure soon."

Back in the Yuusari Bee Hive, things were getting hectic. Rumors spread that Aria Rink was ill and dying, that the supervisor himself would be easily gotten ill, and that people were starting to reject Bees that came to deliver letters. The Biological Investigations Team was more and more present, asking everyone they could about any that were sick or were showing symtoms. BIT also took many people away, ill and healthy. They enlisted Dr. Thunderland, and had permanent staff in the Hive to question all incoming Bees or visitors.  
In the supervisors office, a sort of argument was taking place, though no one spoke loud or showed any signs of violence. Indeed, anyone looking in would think it was a civil conversation, but it was anything but that.

"I wont let you take random Bees away with no explanation as to why. Sick you can take, since you take all the sick anyways." Ralgo said, sitting at his large desk with his finger interlaced in from of him. Across from him sat two men in suits, one was tall and very square, one was tall and thin.

"The ones that are healthy, yet exposed to the ill, may have an imunity that we can use to cure the sick!" The thin one said.

"Yes, it's inyour best interest to give us some healthy Bees too." The square one said.

"Don't talk about them as if they're objects for me to hand over. They don't want to go with you, and I see no reason why-" Lloyd started but was interupted by the thin man.

"If you don't cooperate willingly, you will find them disapearing on their routes."

Silence ensued for nealry a whole minute, in which the two parties regarded each other with closed expressions.

"If you take some Bees, what will you do with the healthy?" Ralgo Lloyd asked finaly, quietly.

"We see whats in their blood that makes them resistant, and possibly immune." The square man said.

"Will they come back to us unscathed and whole?" The supervisor asked and neither BIT representative replied. Ralgo glared at them and stood.

"Leave my office, and the Hive now! I shall give any and all Bees permission to attack you on sight if you try to take them away!" His voice was loud and comanding and he pointed to his door. The BIT men stood and briskly left the room and stated muttering fiercly to each other as they walked down the hall. Ralgo Lloyd exited his own office second after, and walked to main area of the Hive.

"Letter Bees!" He said loudly, and almost instantly silence blanketted the crowd. BIT people and Bees alike looked up at him, confused.

"First of all, ALL of you Biological Investigations Team leave imediatly, failure to do so will result in a bunch of Dingos clawing and biting at you!"

At first no one moved, but then the supervisor motioned to a few nearby Bees that had fierce Dingos and gestured at the BIT men and women. The Bees nodded nad commanded their Dingos to drive them out. Instantly there was shouting and running, and unwanted people left in a rush, scramblin ungracefully for the doors and yelling in fright. Some Bees chuckled at the sight, and after a minute where he was sure there were no BIT men left, the supervisor continued.

"Letter Bees, they wanted to take many of you away to most likely cut up and be examined-"

Horrifed and outraged gasps and swear words erupted, and the supervisor waved a hand to quite them.

"-they ARE trying to find a cure, but they think they have the right to push us, and everyone else, around as they please. They do not have that right, and will try to take you by force! From now on, no Bee will be alone, all deliveries will be made in teams of two or three, depending on your own capabilites and Dingos. You have my permission to do whatever it takes to avoid capture."

"Excuse me!" The voice of a young woman came from the crowd, and Ralgos eyes fell on a tall woman with bushy brown hair and a massive raven for a Dingo.

"Yes?"

"Are they trying to take other people too? People that aren't Bees?"

"Not really, they say that you all have higher immune systems and better fight off illnesses because of your line of work. They are curently only interested in Letter Bees."

"What about the Bees currently out on route alone?" Mokka asked.

"I send some of you to make haste to them, and stay teamed up. All this will be figured out within an hour, so please stay here or go and prepare for your deliveries. Everyone report back in an hour!" And with that he walked away and back to his office. He slammed his door shut and sat at his desk, burrying his head in his hands. He wished he had Aria Rink here to help him organize this. But he'd have to make do alone for now, since he was reluctent to find a temporary replacement for Aria. He knew it was silly, but he felt that if he replaced her she would most certainly be gone forever, and he held onto the hope that he didn't have to find a permanent replacement. He was sad that any Bee should fall ill. Zaji too seemed sad for Aria. Oh, Zaji.

"Damnit!" He said loudly. Zaji was a Bee, that they wanted, curently alone in a caravan full of BIT people, out in the middle of no-where, and BIT never said where they were going.  
My my, things were getting out of hand.


	5. Chapter 5

Do not own. . .blahblah. . .in the first chapter, along with general explanation of the Tegami Bachi world. (If for some odd reason you haven't read the manga and are reading this, everything has a sort of steampunk style to it, if that helps you imagine it.)

Chapter 5!  
(Direct continuation from chapter 4)

As he had ordered, every single Bee that wasn't currently on route returned to the Hive within an hour. He looked at the faces of all the Letter Bees, and sighed. Tough times were always tougher on a Bee than most others, and he was glad they could handle it. He was proud, and protective of the Letter Bees. The supervisor raised his hands for silence, and then spoke loudly, his voice ringing through the hall.

"I have here papers saying who will team up with who, based on your own abilities, your Dingo and your common routes. I will also send out individual Bees to go and accompany the Bees out there already."

"What if we get jumped on our way to the others Bees?" A voice called out. There were some mutters of agreement.

"The ones I have chosen for this have easily hidden Dingos, and you will be disguised somewhat, traveling with no Bee uniform. They will think of you as a normal traveler, not worth 'jumping'. Now, come collect your papers listing what teams you will be, then destroy the papers after please. Mokka, Jiggy Pepper, come meet me in my office please." The supervisor turned and abruptly left the hall, he heard behind him some Bees calling out the names of those they'd been teamed up with and a general chatting. The two he had singled out came up behind him and followed him to his large office. Mokka, the one with the cobra Dingo closed the door while the supervisor sat in his leather chair and Jiggy Pepper sat in across from him. Ralgo waited until Mokka was seated before starting.

The supervisor examined the two Bees in front of him before he spoke. Mokka had somewhat squinty eyes and a pointy nose, and short black hair. He was tall and skinny, but also highly athletic. His Dingo was a cobra, which unless he needed it was kept in a bag on his waste. Jiggy Pepper was usually never at the Hive, he was the most farthest out employed Bee they had. He was tall, with a big jagged scar covering his right eye, which stayed closed. He had blond hair, and a somewhat cold face but he was actually quite kind. His Dingo was a falcon which sat on a leather patch on his shoulder.

"You both have different missions, but you'll be traveling to your objectives together mostly." Ralgo said and the two just nodded and silently awaited further information.

"Mokka, you will be going and teaming up with a Bee on his route. It is Lag Seeing, who is delivering some fragile things to a series of towns and is therefore moving slow, so you should be able to catch up to him quickly. I'll give you a map with his route in a moment.  
You and Jiggy will be going in the same direction the whole way, so you can be teamed up until you reach Lag. At that point, Jiggy Pepper, you will be on a possible rescue mission."

"What? Did they catch a Bee?" Jiggy said in surprise.

"Not really, but he wont be safe. A few days ago, Zaji was employed to protect a caravan of the BIT people on an expedition to a forest to search for a plant that may be the cure. He was the only one that went, so he's just one Bee surrounded by a whole caravan of BIT people. They need him to fight Gaichuu, but once they don't need him, I don't want to know what they'd do to him."

"Why'd he even go?" Mokka said on contempt, obviously thinking Zaji was stupid.

"Because even though we don't aprove of BIT's methods, they are the only ones trying to find a cure, and if they don't we have a fatal epidemic on our hands and many people will die."  
Mokka shut up after that, looking a bit embarassed.

"Sort of a double-edged sword eh?" Jiggy Pepper said and chuckled. Mokka and the supervisor looked at him, confused for a moment.

"BIT are bad people, who are doing some terrible things they shouldn't, but their also the good guys and trying to find a cure. We need them, as much as we hate them." He said and leaned back in his chair and stroked his Dingos head.

"You're right about that. Here is the map and the estimated path of the caravan, as well as Lag Seeings route."

"One question though, why us two?" Mokka asked.

"You both are not highly recognized by BIT, and your Dingos are easily hidden compared to others. And you need to catch up fast, and Jiggys bike can do that for you." Ralgo Lloyd finished and handed them a map with the two routes traced on it. Jiggy stared at it intently for a moment, the looked at Mokka then the supervisor.

"So we head out imediatly?" He said and stood up.

"Yes. Be very careful when getting near Zaji, don't let up to anyone you're a Bee. Zaji will recognize you quickly enough though."

Jiggy Pepper nodded, and then the two Bees said their goodbyes and left the office. They walked in silence for a while then at the entrance to the Hive Jiggy looked at Mokka.

"I got to go get the sidecar put onto my bike, I'll be back in a bit to pick you up." Jiggy said and Mokka just nodded and leaned against the doorframe. Jiggy went out of sight, and moment later a motorbike could be heard firing up and driving away.

"You're going to get Lag and Zaji right?" A voice said behind him and he turned. There was an overweight Bee standing there, looking up at him with an expression of worry. He recognized the round Bee as Connor Culh, a friend of both Lag and Zaji.

"I'm to go get Lag, Jiggy Pepper is gonna rescue Zaji."

"Can I help?"

"No, it can only be us two on this mission." Mokka said and turned away. Connor seemed like he was going to say something more, but he just walked away, looking dejected.

"Not like theres much he can do anyways." Mokka muttered.

Zaji had been with the BIT caravan as a Guardian for just about two weeks now, and had killed nearly a Gaichuu a day. It was starting to wear him out, but he didn't show it other than sleeping a lot. It was driving him crazy, he knew the others on the Guardian unit were whispering about him when they thought he was asleep, and it worried him what they were plotting. The Caravan had kept their steady slow pace all day every day, only stopping to let the Miss Mascara lizards that pulled them along sleep for a few hours and for everyone else to eat a hot supper. The caravan was slowing now, about to stop. Zaji looked out the back of the wagon which had a large canvas top but an open back and front. The stars here were bright, illuminating things thoroughly. The wagons behind them were slowing as well, and Zaji could see people jumping out before they even stopped.

"Finally, I was getting hungry." One of the other Guardians said and the others mumbled in agreement. Zaji just stood up and jumped out the back, his Dingo following him in an instant. Zaji didn't like any of the people on the whole caravan, they always got on his nerves. Then again he was used to travelling alone, and the only people he liked travelling with was either Lag or Connor. He missed them suddenly, and looked up at the stars again, wondering if they were looking up at the same dots of light right now.

The caravan quickly set up a cooking fire, and their self-proclaimed chef of fine cuisine started cooking a soup. Zaji sat a little ways off from the rest of them, and pet Vashukas head. He started muttering and talking quietly to her.

"I hope Lag didn't get sick, he is quite small and still young. I don't think Connor would get sick, that's not his luck. You wont get sick right Vashuka? These BIT people better find a cure soon, so Aria can get better."

Vashuka just purred in response and rubbed her head on his shoulder. Zaji smiled at her, glad to have such a wonderful Dingo. He wondered if animals could get the sickness too, and he shoved the thought out of his head. If Vashuka got ill and died, he wouldn't be able to handle it.

"Soup?" A voice said, startling Zaji. He looked up to see the chef holding a bowl of hot soup, and mumbled a thanks and took it from him. It smelled odd, and tasted bad, but then again everything the chef cooked tasted bad. Everone else openly complained about how it tasted, but Zaji just ate it silently. It wasn't as bad as the horrible soup that Sylvette liked so much. Just the memory of it made the supper in his hands taste better instantly.

He looked up at he stars again and sighed. Once this was done, he was going back to being a Bee, he couldn't handle being around these people. And he missed delivering letters, working with other Bees sometimes, and travelling on his own with only Vashuka.

Mokka didn't have to wait long for Jiggy Pepper to come back on his motorbike. Indead, it had a sidecar on now and once he rolled to a stop, Mokka got in. Jiggy handed him a spare pair of goggles, and revved up the bike. It was somehow powered by Heart, but before Mokka could ask how Connor ran up to them.

"When you see Lag and Zaji, tell them I said to be careful!" Connor said, "They both get in over their heads all the time." He then mumbled something incoherently and backed off a bit. He looked quite out of sorts and sad, probably just overly worried about his two friends.

"Will do." Jiggy said and with no other words, he took off, with Mokka in the sidecar. They went through the streets at a decent pace, not too fast, but the moment they were out in the open he launched at full speed. Mokka scrambled to hold onto something, and was glad he was wearing goggles. They raced along the dry dusty ground at an alarming speed, and it was quite bumpy.

"This thing goes fast!" Mokka shouted over the wind. He was annoyed that he sounded a bit squeaky.  
As a response, Jiggy Pepper just gunned it and went even faster for a short distance, but then went back to his previous speed.

"The faster I go, the more Heart I use, and I'm going pretty fast now so when it come to fighting Gaichuu if we come across any, you can deal with them and I'll just assist if needed." Jiggy shouted back, and after that they were both silent, racing the wind across the barren land of Amberground.

Lag Seeing and his Dingo Niche were out in the wide open, on their way to the last delivery of the fragile glass cats. It was the bright orange one, and it was intended for Julie Glasscats parents. The thousands of stars twinkled above him silently, casting their pale light upon the ground, washing everything into shades of gray. After a while the terrain started to change, grass grew in sparse clumps, a couple little trees that were crooked and bent from years in the harsh wind. Eventually the entire ground was covered in long swaying grass, and there were flowers growing. Niche ran around, smelling the different species of flowers, and Lag slowed his pace. Everything looked gray and bleak, but also beautiful at the same time. He stopped and looked around him, admiring the scene.

"It's nice here." Niche said from a short distance away. Lag nodded in agreement and smiled. Steak jumped off of Niches head nad starting runing around, completely invisible amongst the tall grass except for a little wave that followed his path. Niche chased after him, and Lag laughed watching them.

Then he heard an odd noise, and Niche and Steak froze, Niche holding the odd creature by the tail. It was like a rumbling noise, and it was getting louder and louder. Then the ground started to shake, and Lag realized what was happening.

"Gaichuu!" He said and Niche ran to his side and was on the alert. Far off in from of them, the ground erupted violently, tearing the field apart and sending clumps of grass and flowers flying high and falling all around Lag and his Dingo. Out of he ground emerged and very large, smooth-shelled Gaichuu. Once it was out of the ground, it faced Lag and instead of running after him, it twitched a bit and rolled up into an armored ball, with it's many legs sticking out the side. It launched towards them, at a frightening pace and Lag ran to the side. He had no idea where it's weak spot was, but he would bet all of his rin that it couldn't be reached when it was rolled up like that. He looked around him wildly, the Gaichuu was turning in his direction and getting ready for another pass.

Then Lag saw it in the distance, a series of jagged hills. He ran as fast he could towards them, the Gaichuu on his heels. Niche ran beside him still carrying the poor Steak by the tail. He was starting to panic, since the Gaichuu was rolling after him a bit faster than he could run, and it would catch up before he coudl reach the hills. Then he saw a brilliant light, and a Heart bullet slammed into the side of the Gaichuu and sparks shot in all directions. The Gaichuu wobbled but kept going, a bit slower though. Lag turned to see two people on a motorbike rushing towards him. Once they were closer he recognized Jiggy Pepper and Mokka. Mokka was aiming at the Gaichuu and Jiggy was driving right at Lag. Once they were close enough, Jiggy reached out with one arm and scooped up lag, holding him like a football and driving away from the Gaichuu, towards the hills.

"I'm assuming you have a plan since your running that way." Jiggy shouted over the wind and sounds of the motor.

"Yeah! Just keep going that way." Lag shouted back and looked behind him to see Niche somehow running as fast as the motorbike, leaping over the little bumps of grass and waving around the flailing Steak. They raced towards the jagged hills, and once they got so close Lag closed his eyes tightly in expectance of a crash, Jiggy swerved wildly to the side. The Gaichuu couldn't turn that sharp though, and rammed full speed into the rocky hill that jutted out of the ground. It fell sideways and opened up, but it seemed to be stuck on it's side. Jiggy swerved the bike around so that they were facing it's stomach, and they could palinly see it's weak spot. Jiggy droppe lag, and both the small Bee and Mokka fired a silmultaneous Heart bullet right in the gap in the armor. It lit up and brilliant light shone out through it's gaps, and it fell apart before their eyes.

Lag opened his bag quickly and franticly made sure the glass cat in his bag was whole, and sighed in releif.

"Thank you two so much! If you didn't arrive it would've got me." Lag said happily.

"No problem, easy kill." Mokka said smugly.

"We've actually come to tell you something, and Mokka will be teaming up with you." Jiggy said and turned the motorbike off and stood up. Mokka got out of the sidecar, and they told Lag everything about BIT being psuedo-enemies, and the Bees teaming up.

"Is that why your not wearing uniforms?" Lag asked and they nodded.

"I've got to go, Mokka will stay with you for the whole route, and get back to the Hive soon." Jiggy said and started the Heart bike up again. He whisted and his falcon swooped low and landed gracefully on his shoulder. He patted it.

"Where are you going?" Lag asked.

"To rescue Zaji. Mokka can tell you. Good luck. Oh, and Connor Culh says 'be careful'." And with that Jiggy set off, quickly getting his bike up to speed. His falcon Dingo flew above him, calling out. Lag turned to Mokka.

"What's he mean by 'rescue' Zaji?" He asked worridly.

"I'll tell you as we move, lets get going." Mokka said and they set out to complete Lag's delivery.

Ralgo Lloyd sat at his desk, and across from him were a man and a woman, both dressed in fancy clothes. They were government officials, here to speak with him, and he didn't like what they had to say.

"Your inability to work with the Biological Investigations Team is getting tiring, supervisor." The woman said in a cold voice. She didn't even look at him as she spoke, only readjusted the folds in her long flowing dress. She also said 'supervisor' like it was something dirty, and it was getting on Ralgo's nerves.

"They want to take away healthy Bees, and conduct immoral experiments-" Ralgo started.

"It dosen't matter how immoral they are! Your Bees are the only ones not likely to fall ill, and we need to know why!" The man said in a loud, thundering voice that made Ralgo wince.

"The extreme taxes are enough aren't they? My Bees do not want to be experimented on, and possibly killed or crippled, it should be against the law! I've seen what BIT did-"

"Failure to comply will result-" The main interrupted, but the supervisor interrupted him back.

"'will result in the forceful taking of Letter Bees', I know, so I have given the Bees permission to attack whomever may try to kidnap them."

"What?! Are you insane, do you WANT a lawsuit?" The woman asked, incredulous. The supervisor jumped out of his chair and slammed a fist on the table.

"Do you think it is legal to forcefully kidnap, cut open and examine people?! And then either let them die or leave them crippled, possibly for the rest of their life? Yes BIT is trying to find a cure, but that gives them no right to do this!"

"We are giving them the right to do whatever they want, the Letter Bees could be their only hope of finding a cure! If you don't hand over five healthy Letter Bees to them within the next two days, the homes of the Bees will be raided and they will be taken forcefully." The man said loudly and stood up as well.

"How can you condone such acts?" The supervisor said and sat down, souding dejected.

"It is our only option, that's what they keep telling us." The woman said quietly, sounding almost as defeated as Ralgo.

"I refuse to hand over Bees."

"We figured as much. Come, let us go." The man said and offered his hand to the woman, she took it and stood, they left the room. She glanced back at the supervisor, almost as if she were sorry.  
Ralgo Llyod sat in his office in silence for a long time, head in his hands. He stood up, and sighed. He should tell the Letter Bees currently here what was going to happen soon, and send notes to the Bees at their homes.

Out in the hall, he stopped, a little confused (but not showing it) as to why there were so many Bees here when they normally would be at home eating supper by now.

"Why aren't you all at home at this time of day?" He asked loudly, so everyone could hear him. They turned to him, and one Bee said over the small crowd.

"Taxes got so high on most of our rent we're kind of homeless right now. It's the end of the month now so. . .yeah."

"Yeah, we're trying to establish a place to stay for everyone with other Bees that still have homes, but there's not enough room for everyone." Another said.

"How many are left over that can't fit anywhere else?" Ralgo asked and walked into the small crowd. There were twenty bees here right now.

"Well, only four of us still have homes, which are small, and each one with a home can only fit two other Bees. One guy can have three other Bees, so that leaves seven still homeless." The first speaker said, an older bee with a prematurely lined face and a large lizard for a Dingo.

"The seven left with no homes can sleep in the Hive's temporary quarters, though it wont be comfortable it will be better than the streets." Ralgo said and the seven gave their genuine thanks. relieved to have found a place to stay for a bit.

"But, I have more bad news. Sometime soon, the government along with BIT will. . ."

Zaji awoke slowly, feeling that something was wrong. He sat up and looked around. He was on the ground with a blanket over him, and around him were the lumps of the rest of the Guardian unit. He didn't know what was wrong, but something was. He sat up and staggered, his vision suddenly swimming about and turning. He fell back to the ground and clenched his eyes shut. He was quite dizzy, and he felt out of breath.

"Must've been the stupid soup." He said and stood up again, slowly. Once his vision stabalized a bit, he walked away from the others and to a little hill. He climbed it slowly, feeling unusually out of breath by the top. He flopped onto the ground.

"Mrowr?" Vashuka made an odd noise and followed him, rubbing her head on his leg and shoulder. Zaji sighed and patted her head.

"Vashuka, how do-" He started but was interrupted by a coughing fit. He coughed and coughed, not being able to stop for a while. It made him dizzy and feel like falling over, but he managed to stay upright. Once he could control himself, he forced himself to stop after some effort. He sat there gasping for breath. His lungs hurt, and so did his stomach. He noticed an odd substance on his black gloves that were covering his mouth; and after taking one glove off and examining it, what he saw made his heart falter. It was a thick, pink-tinged fluid.

"Damn." He said and leaned his head back, closing his eyes and breathing slowly.


	6. Chapter 6

Before I start the next chapter, I'd like to thank those who put this story in their favs/alert thing, I dropped the story a while ago but then I figured. . .It was mean to leave it off where it was, and I got a few people now that want to know how it ends.  
And I don't really know how to use the features of FFN so IF any of you left a review, I dunno how to read them. I just know how to upload. Though someone I know told me that someone else reivewed a few chapters ago, or in the last chapter, I don't remember, and I followed their suggestion of putting a break into the sections when I swap from one characters to another. If you see ++++++++++++ that means that I'm swapping charcter views, from Zaji, to Jiggy, to Mokka, or Ralgo Lloyd.  
There is not much editting in this chapter, since I'm really quite busy, so please ignore the obvious spelling mistakes.

Lag Seeing, Niche and Mokka arrived at Lag's last delivery destination. It was just a small farming community that sat at the bottom of a large mountain, where they grew various fruits and vegetables. As the two Bees walked through the field, people that were currently picking fruit from trees called out greetings. Lag wasn't wearing his Bee uniform anymore, now he just wore a plain brown jacket and dull clothes, like Mokka. Niche wore her same golden dress, and Steak still sat on her head. Lag waved at the farmers they passed; Mokka just stared ahead and looked bored.

"Here we go." Lag said and stopped to open the gate of one of the houses. He heard a couple dogs barking, but they were quited quickly. Mokka followed close, looking overly paranoid. The wooden door on the face of the house opened and a woman stepped out. Lag blinked, thinking that Julie Glasscat was in front of him. But as he got closer, he saw that this woman was older, some of her long hair was turning silver and she had some faint laugh lines round her eyes. She smiled at Lag.

"What can I do for you?" She asked. Lag opened his bag and handed her the wrapped-up cat.

"This is a delivery from Julie Glasscat." He said. He handed the woman a paper to sign, which she did, and watched her open the package and start to cry.

"Oh thank you so much!" She said and rushed foreword to hug Lag. She was so happy she cried, and Lag almost cried too but he didn't. He smiled hugely though.

"Would you like to come in for some tea or a bite to eat?" She asked, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"No, we have to get going right away, thanks for the offer though." Lag said. "Have a nice day!"

"You too!" Julie Glasscats mother waved and the two Bees left quickly, walking back the way they came. The farmers now shouted out goodbyes and gooddays, and Lag once again waved at them.

"We need to get back to the Hive as fast as possible, to see if anything else has happened or if I need to get other Bees." Mokka said.

"Yeah. I hope Jiggy can safely get Zaji away from BIT." Lag said, and they both fell silent.

Jiggy Pepper eventually found the carvan's tracks, and the estimated route on the map wasn't far off from it's actual route. He stuffed the map away, muttered a silent prayer, and followed the tracks. He went slower, trying to ride quietly. He was planning on following the caravan at a distance, and waiting for everyone to sleep before finding Zaji. He was going to first ask Zaji how he was being treated, and to tell Jiggy everyone he knew so far, but he wouldn't take Zaji away from the BIT people yet. As much danger as he might be in from the very people he was suposed to protect, Zaji was needed to kill the Gaichuu and make sure BIT can get the plants they want succesfully. Jiggy planned on following them to the forest, but once they were on the way back he was going to spirit away the younger Bee, since BIT could just hire people in nearby towns and try to make it back on a main road where there was less Gaichuu.

He saw in the distance the last wagon of the caravan, and he slowed his pace. He would follow until they stopped, then aproach quietly on foot. But it would be a while before they stopped, so he had to wait. He sighed and looked up at his Dingo, watching her wings pump through the cold air and her tailfeathers swivel to let her turn. The black sky above her and the stars stared down unseeingly upon them. He looked back to the dusty road ahead, watching the wagons.  
This was going to take a while.

Zaji sat in a wagon, alone except for the Dingo sleeping at his side. Once others had awoken and seen him coughing and staggering, they told him to stay in a vacant caravan that would be full of plants on the return trip. Zaji was feverish and dizzy, and he couldn't sleep or stay still no matter how much he wanted to. Vashuka twitched in her sleep, chasing imaginary rats. Zaji fidgeted and tried to get comfortable, but to no avail. He hated being ill, and he was getting panicky. He was coughing more and more, and now his nose was running, and more pinkish stuff was coming out from his eyes as well. He wondered if he'd die here, on a caravan full of people he didn't like.  
He didn't have much time to wonder about that though, because a man jumped up into the wagon from the front. People often did that, since the lizards pulling the big wagons were slow. The man was tall and odd-shaped. His head was very large, and his shoulders and chest looked too big for the rest of him. His legs were thick, but his feet were small and it gave him a top-heavy look.

He smiled a crooked, disturbing smile at Zaji.

"So, you finally got sick." He said and sat down across from Zaji. Vashuka jolted awak instantly and growled low in her throat. She put herself between Zaji and visitor.

"What?" Zaji asked, his voice cracking and hoarse from the constant coughing.

"Why, I've been trying to get you sick the whole time you've been here. The top guys were right, you Bees are resiliant." He grinned hugely when he saw Zaji's expression of outrage and betrayal.

"You were trying to get me sick?" Zaji said furiously, and was about to say more but doubled over in another coughing fit.

"Yep. Your useful for killin' Gaichuu, but also useful as a research subject now." The man laughed as Zaji cntinued to cough. Vashuka hissed loudly and crouched, facing the visitor. He stopped laughing, and eyed the cat. Zaji stopped coughing, and he wiped large amounts of the pinks stuff away from his mouth, nose and eyes. His vision was blurry and off-colored, since he couldn't get the fluid off of his eyes very well, but he could see well enough to hate the expression the man wore.

"Not much good I'll be protecting you, if I die." Zaji said, and realized how ironic his sentence was. He was threatening the BIT man with his own death, which he didn't want.

"Oh, but you wont, as long as you stay with us." He said and pulled out form his pocket a glass flask filled with faintly green-colored fluid.

"What?"

"We have an experimental substance that can slow the progression of your illness, as long as you take it every single day. It's far from a permanent cure, but we just need you to stay with us and protect us. If you continue your duty, you can live, if not, we'll just let you die and examine you for or purposes."

"You. . ." Zaji said with hatred, "back-stabbing bastard." And he doubled over in another painful coughing fit.  
The man just laughed at the Bee.

Lag and Mokka were going to stop in No-Town; where Lag had delivered one of the glass cats, on their way back for food. Mokka had packed light, so he could get to Lag faster, and their food was about to run out. Up ahead they could see No-Town, and it seemed different. Lag couldn't tell what was wrong, but he knew somthing was very wrong.

"Lag, theres something wrong." Niche said.

"I know." Lag replied and gulped.

"What? How can you tell?" Mokka asked and squinted at the town, trying to see what was wrong. He saw nothing though.

"Listen. Where are the children's laughs and yells? The dogs barking, or anything like that?" Lag said and they all stopped to listen. The utter silence that filled the semi-darkness around them engulfed them completely. Lag and Mokka could hear their own breath and heartbeats over anything else. Mokka drew his gun.

"Proceed with caution." He said and took the lead. They arrived at the nearest house, and Mokka looked into the window. Dust streamed through the small yards and streets, and all was empty. They walked slowly, looking all around them. They knocked on no doors, and never called out. They did look into the windows, and saw nothing. Well, untill they arrived at one large house, and Lag looked into a window and gasped. Mokka rushed over.

"What?" He siad and looked in. It must have been a hospital, since it was a very large room filled with only beds. Every bed held a person, and there were even some people sleeping on the floors on blankets and pillows.

"A-a-are they breathing?" Lag asked shakily. Mokka stared intently at them.

"They got that pinkish fluid all over them. They're sick. . .or were." He said quietly. Lag backed away from the window.

"We need to get out now Lag!" Niche said and started pulling him away.

"Wait, what about Mrs. Smelt and her kids?" He said, and without waiting for a response he started running to where her house was.

"Lag!" Mokka called and rushed after him. The two Bees and Niche ran past more and more empty houses. Since No-Town was so small, they got to Mrs. Smelts house quickly. Lag ran up to the door and banged on it, tears streaming down his face uncontrolably. Mokka came up behind him, and watched him bang on the door and call out for anyone that was inside. He put a hand on Lag's shoulder and tried ot pull him away, but Lag just fell to his knees. Mokka didn't know what to say or do, so he looked around the front of the house. He saw a paper stuck to the inside of the window, though the writing was facing outward so he could read it.

"Lag, they're not here, they left." Mokka said, surprised at how happy he sounded that Mrs. Smelt and her kids weren't there. He didn't even know them at all.

"What?" Lag said through his tears and got up. He had to stretch and go on his toes to see the note, but when he saw it his tears changed form despair to happiness.

"I'm so happy they got out." Lag said.

"We should go too." Mokka said and Lag nodded. They left quickly, and put as much distance between them and No-Town as fast as they could.

The illness was getting worse, if a cure wasn't found soon, everyone in Amberground would be in trouble.

* * *

Jiggy Pepper walked silently, crouched low to the ground. He darted from behind a rock to a little hill, and crawled on his belly across the cold ground to the top. He looked down on the BIT caravan sitting around a fire. His eyes looked for a Bee, but he couldn't see the easily distinguished uniform. He then thought that they wont want Zaji to wear a Bee uniform, and tried to remember what the boy looked like. He had to look for short, messy black hair, a pale face, and cat eyes. He found him after a minute, sitting leaned up against a jagged rock. He saw no Dingo in sight. Jiggy strained his eyes and ears to understand what was going on, since it seemed to be more than just supper. A tall man that lookd very top-heavy stood by the fire and spoke loudly to everyone.

"We are reaching our destination, and starting from tommorrow we will be going much faster! I will also ask you all to keep an eye on our loaned Bee here-" He gestured to Zaji, who didn't move nor speak, and Jiggy started to get a bad feeling about the whole scene, "but also keep your distance from, he is sick. Don't worry though, he wont die, as long as he does as we say."

Jiggy was sickened to hear that the group of them laughed.

"That abominable cat is also chained up until a Gaichuu strikes, I'll put you in charge-" he pointed to man sitting nearby, "of making sure it dosen't get away."  
The cat must be Vashuka, Zaji's Dingo.

"But for now, lets eat!" He said and they all stood up to get some food from a pot that hung over the fire. Zaji stood too, but he went the other way,shakily walked a short distance off and pretty much fell to the ground at the base of another small hill. Jiggy crawled backwards and quickly went to where Zaji was, still keeping out of sight. He came up behind the little hill, and tapped his fingers on a rock to get the small Bee's attention. Zaji turned quickly and looked dizzy for a moment, swaying. He saw Jiggy Pepper and faced foreward again, and sat so that Jiggy was blocked from view.

"Zaji, you're sick?" He whispered. Zaji just nodded and stifled a cough in response. Jiggy closed his eyes for a moment and sighed.

"How'd you get sick, is someone in the caravan ill too?" He asked.

"No, they got me sick by-" Zaji stopped to cough, and continued after a moment, "putting that damn fluid from someone who was sick in my food every day. I can't get away, they have Vashuka tied up, and they have the only thing keeping me alive."

"What? They have a cure?"

"It's a temporary one that I have to take every day, it dosen't make me better but I won't get worse either. I have to do whatever they say."

"I was gonna rescue you, but that will have to wait I guess. How long till you guys reach your destination?"

"A we-" Zaji coughed more.

"Week?" Jiggy suggested and Zaji nodded.

"Can you try and find that stuff by then? I'll bust you out on your way back. Somehow."

Zaji just nodded and stifled his coughs. He breathed heavily and rest his head agianst the hill. Jiggy was about to ask another question, but a sudden cry from his Dingo above warned that someone was aproaching.

"Good luck." He said and creeped away from the little hill like a shadow, quickly and silently making his way back to his motorbike. His footsteps barely made dust kick up, he was very careful with his footing. He'd never snuck around like this, but was mildly proud at how well he did. Zaji didn't even know he was there untill he had tapped the rock.  
Once he was back to his bike, he sat on it but didn't start it. He sighed and held up a fist, for his Dingo to land on. Her talons pocked into his leather glove, and she chirped quietly to him and he gently stroked her head and back.

"You did well." He said to her quietly. He looked in the direction the caravan was, but there was an outcropping of rocks which blocked his bike from their view. He really wished Zaji luck, and hoped he wouldn't get treated too badly. He seemed hardly capable of walking, let alone killing Giachuu though, and that might be a problem. Jiggy knew BIT were going for a cure, but he cared more if Zaji died than if they all did.

"When this is over, we all need a vacation." Jiggy muttered to his Dingo, and raised his fist. She launched herself into the air, and flew high. She started to circle, and would call out if the caravan started moving.

Mokka and Lag wandered in complete silence. The wind around them had stopped, and all was still. The valley they were in seemed timeless, with the same rocks that will never change, the same path that would wind through it the same, and the stars would always remiain, watching over and never begin different than they were at this moment. Mokka examined everything as they walked, wondering if he should say something to try and cheer the small Bee up. Since leaving No-Town, even though Mrs. Smelt and her kids seemed safe for now, Lag had been unusually quite and reserved. What they had seen had disturbed Mokka, but at least he mildly prepared for it since he had heard about people that were dying from the illness, but Lag knew next to nothing about it. It must have quite a shock, and not a good one.

The cry of a bird make both of them look up, and Mokka recognized Jiggy Pepper's falcon Dingo. She spiraled downwards and landed on a skinny little tree that was growing out the sid of the valley. It bobbed slighty with her weight, but held. Mokka went foreword and pat her on the head, and saw hse had a letter on her foot. He took it off and read it.

"Mokka, I found Zaji and am following the caravan, but it appears that the BIT people put something in his food and made him sick on purpose. They have a temporary cure that Zaji has to take every day, it dosen't help him get better but he wont get worse either. A day without it and he might die, they're using it to make him do whatever they want. He can hardly fight Gaichuu, or even walk in his condition. Please tell the supervisor when you get back, since you'll get there long before I.  
Good luck,  
Jiggy"

"Isn't that Jiggy Peppers Dingo?" Lag asked. Mokka folded up the letter and put in his pocket.

"Yeah, he says he found Zaji and is following the BIT caravan now." Mokka said, leaving out everything else. No need to worry Lag more than he was. Lag smiled and looked happy finally.

"I'm glad, at least Zaji's safe." Lag said, not realising how very wrong that statement was.

Mokka pat the Dingo on the head and she flew away, crying out once more before flapping out of sight.  
Lag and Mokka traveled quickly, not stopping much and only taking short naps. They both wanted to get to the Hive as soon as possible; for different reasons. Lag wanted to make sure Sylvette and Connor were okay, and to go visit Julie Glasscat. Mokka needed to tell the supervisor about how Jiggy's mission was going, and how Zaji's position had changed.  
It was wierd to stop in a town, and have no one greet them as Bees but as normal travelers. Both Lag and Mokka surpressed their atuomatic request for letters that needed to be delivered, and they didn't have the normal respect they were used to. They only bought food, and kept going though, wary of anyone that was coughing or showed other symptoms of illness. Before, there'd be maybe one or two people per town that were sick, now it seemed as if one tenth of the population was showing early symptoms of illness. It was spreading fast, alarmingly so.

The supervisor was reading the reports from the Bee teams that had returned over the last couple of days. They all said the same thing; the illness was spreading quickly, BIT were present in every town (no doubt looking for Bees to nab), and people had started dying. Ralgo sighed heavily. This was becoming a catastrohpe. He started re-reading some of the reports, when his door was suddenly flung open. He jumped a bit at the sudden intrusion, and looked up to see Mokka.

"Mokka! Your here sooner than I expected!" He said and stood up. Mokka closed the door and shoved a very crumple paper at the supervisor.

"After Jiggy and I split up, his Dingo brought this to me." He said. Ralgo read it over twice, and sat back down. He crumpled it in his fist in anger.

"Damn them." He muttered.

"I've written a report, but I'm going to tell you now the illness is much worse than before." Mokka said.

"I know, people have started dying and more are getting sick. And BIT are getting pushy."

"Do you know about No-Town? Population is like seventy-something?" Mokka said. The supervisor thought about it and remembered hearing about it.

"Yes."

"The entire population except for a small family of four has died of the illness." Mokka said and flopped into a chair. The supervisor stared at him, his mind going blank for a moment.

"What?" He finally managed to say, a bit flustered.

"Lag and I saw it. Only one family has been left alive, and we don't even know if they ARE alive, we just found a note saying they left."

Ralgo rested his head in his hands. This was getting out of control.

"And those bastards got Zaji ill? What good will he do them if he's sick, it'd be hard to fight off Gaichuu."

"I don't know, all I know is what was in that letter from Jiggy Pepper."

"Thank you Mokka, you did well. For future deliveries, and until further notice, you are teamed up with Lag Seeing. You will be taking his route, since yours is curently being handled by a different team." He said and stood agian, and shook Mokkas hand in respect. Mokka tried to lighten the somber mood, which was unlike him.

"Oh, you know that some of those Bee teams are making names now?" Mokka said.

"Yeah. My personal favorite is 'Biological Investigations Team Can Eat My Biological Waste', though its a bit long." Both the supervisor and the Bee shared a brief amused smile before parting, leaving Ralgo alone to think about more serious matters.

Once the cure was found and BIT wasn't needed so much, he'd make them face all their deeds and pay for them. If Zaji died because of them, he was going to the government about it.


	7. Chapter 7

For the legal part please see the first chapter, along with the basic description about the Amberground world.  
Chapter 7!

All my chapters and stuff got messed up, it's difficult to re-arange them and whatnot. . .Not to mention I sort of don't really care for this story anymore, but I need to finish it now that there are a few people that want to see it end and it'd be mean to leave it off at a cliffhanger.

Zaji had a lot of time to examine the wagon while he sat there all day, unable to sleep or do anything. He wasn't aloud to get out unless there was a Gaichuu attack, or they stopped for supper. His poor Dingo was chained up in a different wagon, with a mean BIT guardian that had a long stick to make sure she couldn't do anything. Zaji was angry about that, but he couldn't do anything at all about it. So he spent his days starring at the wagon. It was basically a flat wooden floor, and had walls that were only three feet high with a ledge on the top. The canvas top was held on by long, curved iron bars on the interior. Zaji also figured out where and how the axels were connected, and how big the wheels were. He got really bored and counted the wooden boards, and over-examined the lines in his hands. He had a lot of lines on his hands.

"I'm gonna go crazy here." Zaji muttered and coughed. The wierd greenish stuff he drank each day did stop him from being so dizzy, but it didn't help the coughing or feeling weak. He really wanted to punch the man who ordered him about when they stopped, but he couldn't. He didn't even know that bastards name, he just called him Block, because he was so blocky and odd-looking. Block was a little wierd, he stared at everyone constantly and muttered to himself. He also always made Zaji stand around beside him, and told the Bee to try and look more impressive. It was hard to feel or even look impression when he felt like coughing his lungs out and he could see very well from the stupid pink fluid that ran out of his eyes constantly.

And speaking of Block, Zaji could hear him jump onto the wagon and say something to the driver. Zaji stood up, and Block came into the back of the caravan, closing the canvas flap behind him. He eyed the Bee up and down, with a strange expression and a glint in his eyes. Block ran a thick-fingered hand through his short brown hair and stepped toward Zaji.

"Well well, Bee, how are you feeling now?" He said.

"Very pissed off." Zaji said and glared at the lopsided man. Block grinned at him.

"Hm, nothing I can do to help you there." Block said and stepped close to Zaji, who leaned back against the caravan's three-foot wall. He grabbed onto Zaji's hair suddenly and wrenched his head to the side.

"I'm getting bored, and all those idiots in the rest of the Guardian unit and scientist unit are driving me crazy." Block muttered into Zaji's ear. Zaji was mildly used to this, but he still did his best to struggle out of the tall man's grip.

"Now. . .Tell me how much your happy that I give you that blasted antidote every day." Block said.

"What?" Zaji asked, a bit stupified. Block wrenched his head farther to the side. "Tell me!" Block said between clenched teeth.

"Ack-no!" Zaji muttered between clenched teeth. Block threw him to the ground, and Zaji imediatly got up off the wooden floor and backed off.

"You're fast, but stupid." Block said and crossed his arms. "Now, tell me."

"Like hell I am, you-" Zaji sentence was cut off from another coughing fit, and he doubled over. Block took this chance to step foreward and punch Zaji as hard as he could in the gut. Zaji fell to the floor, gasping for breath. He tried to ge up again as fast as he did before, but he didn't have the strength. He lay on the floor breathing shalowly and glaring at Block.

"Get up." Block said. Zaji struggled and staggered to his feet. Block grabbed him by the front of his short jacket and picked him up off the ground.

"When I tell you to do something, you do it instantly!" Block said and let go. Zaji stumbled to the floor but stayed standing, somehow.

"Aren't you afraid all this close contact with me will get you sick too?" Zaji muttered angirly.

"Ha! I've been imunized." Block said.

"What?" Zaji said, temporarily forgetting the curent situation. "There's a cure?"

"It wont help those already sick, but as long as I take it every night I wont get sick. It's not for the public though, just important people like me. It would take a LOT of contact with you to get me sick, which wont happen. . .Yet." Block said, obviously pleased with himself. Zaji glared at him.

"So you bastards have something that will stop people from getting sick and you keep it all to yourselves?" Zaji said in a low voice.

"Shutup, tools don't talk back." Block said and smacked Zaji across the face. The Bee stayed upright, though barely. Zaji drew his fist back for a counter attack, but Block punched the boys jaw and then shoved him to the floor. Zaji grumbled insults and curses.

"Don't ever fight back!" Block said and crouched down to be eye-to-eye with Zaji. "Do as I say, or you wont get that precious antidote tonight."

And he straightened up and abruptly exited the wagon, closing the canvas flap behind him. Zaji lay on the floor, holding his aching stomach muscles and and breathing slowly. After a while he straightened out, much to the protest of his stomach. He stared at the cream-colored canvas ceiling, imagining everything he wanted to do to Block as revenge. He wanted to throw the bastard off a cliff, but that wouldn't be painful enough. BIT had an imunizer to the illness, and weren't giving it out. They made him sick and hold his life as a threat to make him do whatever they wanted. And Zaji knew by now that they could have had a faster caravan as well, the terribly slow Miss Mascara lizards were not needed to help protect the caravan at all, the whole Guardian unit was more than enough. BIT probably wanted to take as long as possible without being obvious, since the longer they went the longer people payed the ridiculous taxes. He hated BIT, and could do nothing.

Eventually Zaji drifted off into an uneasy sleep. He felt overly cold because of his jacket being so short in the torso area, but he ignored it. He has fretful dreams that made no sense, where he was always running, but going nowhere.

"Hey, kid. You okay? Wake up." A voice said and Zaji instantly woke up and tried to sit, but his muscles and bruises protested and he fell back to the wagon floor, bumping his head.

"Whoa easy, I'm not that blocky guy." The voice said and Zaji rubbed the pink stuff away from his eyes to see the old driver of the wagon. He was standing over Zaji, holding a bowl and a cup.

"Get ye some sup', and don' worry I made sure it got nothing but normal soup stuff in it. And this here's water." He placed them on the floor in front of Zaji, who struggled and finally managed to sit up.

"Thanks." Zaji said, a little groggy from his sleep.

"Don' worry 'bout it. I got to go eat my own sup' now." And the old, wrinkled, smiling driver jumped off the back of the stationary wagon with more nimbleness than an old person should have. Zaji took the bowl of soup and saw it was just broth, so he drank it slowly. His jaw ached and he was glad he didn't have to chew anything. A little after he finished the broth and drank the water, the old driver jumped back into the wagon, carrying a blanket and pillow. He smiled at Zaji, and threw the blanket at the boy sudenly, who fantasticly failed to catch it.

"I saw ye were shiverin', and I got a nice warm jacket, so I wont be needin' the blanket. They don' know that o' course." He siad and settled down on the wagon floor.

"Thanks again." Zaji said, truely grateful to finally be warm.

"G'night." The old driver said and stretched out on the wagons floor, the pillow behind his head and his hat covering his face.

"'Night." Zaji replied and lay down again, gratefully covering the blanket over himself and instantly feeling warmer.

They both fell asleep pretty quickly, but they hardly got any rest before a loud comotion woke both of them up.

"Wha'thehellsgoin'n?" The driver said, sitting up and sending his hat flying.

Zaji was up on his feet in an instant. He heard lots of shouting, and among it all he heard the word 'Gaichuu'.

"Stay here." Zaji said and drew his gun, he jumped off the back of the wagon and went to Block, who was standing by the next wagon and shouting orders.

"I need Vashuka freed." Zaji said and saw the Gaichuu in the distance. Thankfully it was still far enough away, someone must have seen it when it was just a tiny bug on the horizon.

"No, you'll just send him on us. Kill it without him." Block said and crossed him arms.

"Are you nuts? I can't fight it without HER." Zaji said. He hated it when people couldn't even get his Dingos gender right. And fighting without a Dingo was unbeleivably dangerous.

"Well, you'll just have to figure it out." Block said and Zaji sighed in frustration. He ran towards the Gaichuu nevertheless, trying to fiure out how the hell he was going to kill it. His vision turned and spun, and he was out of energy instantly though, and he hadn't even made it to the fight. He had very little strength, no Dingo, and he was suposed to kill the massive centipede-like Gaichuu. Zaji faltered and fell to his knees, and looked back at the BIT caravan quickly. It was out of sight, since he'd gone over a hill and then down on a slope, where the monster was. He looked ahead and saw it closing in. It's weak spot was directly on it's head, so he somehow had to get above it or. . .Get caught by the heart-eating feelers, since this type tended to lower it's head to the ground when it extended them. That wasn't desirable, but it was his only option with no Dingo to distract it and turn it around or anything.

"Damn Block." Zaji muttered and shakily stood, waiting for the Gaichuu. He couldn't stand there though, all his reflexes and his mind shouted at him to move, so he did, running to a side. It was no use though, the monster was too nimble and turned towards him. It looked like he was going to get grabbed, whether he planned it or not.  
He stood, waiting for the Gaichuu to strike. It's gate-like mouth opened, and out came the feelers. Zaji didn't know what tey were made of, but the seemed to be organic. Twisting and turning like cloth, they shot towards the Bee.

But Zaji didn't get caught, instead he was sudenly jarred to the side and flung to the ground. He looked up and saw the tall form of Jiggy Pepper laying on him. The older Bee fired his gun at the Gaichuu, and it's feelers retracted and it backed up a bit, only to stirke again. Jiggy got up and pulled Zaji to his feet.

"Whats wrong with you, just standing there?" Jiggy said and whistled. His falcon Dingo swooped down dangerously close to the Gaichuu, distracting it and making it turn away, following the falcon. Zaji tride to take a step, but he almost fell. Jiggy caught him.

"Where's Vashuka?" Jiggy said.

"They kept her locked up, saying I'd make her kill them or something."

"And you can barely walk. . ." Jiggy mumbled and looked closely at Zaji's face, noticing the bruises.

"I'll take care of this." Jiggy said and turned away, running towards the Gaichuu. Zaji watched as his Dingo swivelled higher and higher in the air, making the Gaichuu reach up with it's head, and the top could be seen. Jiggy took aim and fired a brilliant Hart bullet, hitting it squarely in the gap. Light streamed out of every crack, gap, and crease. The Gaichuu fell into a heap of lifeless armor and the light faded. The falcon swooped over the two Bees, and circled. Jiggy went back to Zaji, who was sitting on the ground and breathing shalowly. Jiggy sat beside him and sighed.

"I'm guessing it wasn't a Gaichuu that gave you those bruises." Jiggy said after a moment.

"It was Block." Zaji said.

"What?"

"I don't know his name, but he's a big, blockly, lop-sided, top-heavy back-stabbing bastard." Zaji said in anger. He cougheda bit, and Jiggy waited for him to stop before asking anything else.

"He was the one that got you sick?"

"Yeah."

"And gives you the antidote too?"

"Yeah, if I do as he says." Zaji mumbled.

"Does he actually not give it to you sometimes?"

"I didn't get it yesterday, and possibly not today either."

"Why not yesterday? Or today?"

"Yesterday I hit him after he hit me. Today I tried to stop him from hitting me again." Zaji said and tried to stand up. He fell back down in exhaustion. It felt almost shameful to admit that some man had such control over him, but his pride had long since been swallowed. They sat in silence after that, Jiggy with an unreadable expression, Zaji looking tired.

"I need to go, they might look for you. But don't worry, I'll be following closely and help with the Gaichuu." Jiggy said and helped Zaji stand up.

"Th-" The smaller Bee started but had a coughing fit. He bent over and coughed, and Jiggy watched in sympathy. He felt quite angry at the BIT people, getting him ill and beating him, not letting him fight back otherwise they'd let him die. Chaining up his Dingo and expecting him to kill Gaichuu on his own, in his extremely weakened state. He didn't show it though, not wanting to distress the small Bee more than he was. Jiggy heard his Dingo cry out, and saw her fly away.

"Good luck Zaji, and don't worry I'll get you out soon." Jiggy said and ran off. Zaji watched him go and waited for the BIT people to come.

"See, you didn't need a Dingo." Block's voice said. Zaji just turned and silently walked past the BIT man, ignoring the other BIT guardians that had also come. He was tired, and quite sore. He went back to the wagon he was to sleep in, and saw that the driver was fast asleep. Zaji sighed and laid down on the wagon floor and covered himself with the blanket the driver had given him. He was exhasuted, yet he couldn't sleep. He wondered if he'd make it out of his alive, or if he'd even be able to get back to the Hive. This was certainly one hell of a mess he got himself into. After a while, the Bee drifted off into and uneasy sleep.

(NOTE: This was originally to be put in two chapters, but FFN decided to mess up and I keep losing chapters, so this is one biiiiiiiig long chapter BUT you can quickly skip to this section if you like, press CTRL and F at the same time, and you can search for a keyword, in this case type in chapter part 2 and you will be brought all the way down here so you can stop now and come back later and not have to search. )

Zaji woke up when the wagon started to move, and noticed that the blanket was gone. He sat up and yawned. The wagon was going much faster than it had before, they must have somehow motivated the big and slow Miss Mascara lizards to quicken their pace. If they kept that up, they'd get to the forest pretty quick. He looked out the back window at the stars, and let his mind wander. Then something caught his eye. It was a large brown rabbit running after the wagon. Zaji watched it hop and run after the wagon, and noticed it had a red collar with a paper stuffed into it. The wagon Zaji was in was the last in line, so no one else could see it since it ran directly behind the wagon. Once the little furry thing got closer it tried to jump to the back of the wagon but fell short, so Zaji leaned over the edge dangerously and quickly grabbed the surprisingly heavy animal and pulled it into the back. He took the paper from it's collar and unfolded it.

"Zaji, this rabbit is a Dingo sent to deliver this letter to you. Either by now or in the next few days, the BIT caravan should reach it's destination, and that is when I've instructed Jiggy to get you. He will get you on the second night of your time at the forest, and before then I ask you to gather the following as best as you can.  
If the plant is small enough, try and get a whole one. If not, gather as many leaves of it as you can, as big of a root sample as possible, and a section of the plant stalk. If it has flowers or vines, get some of those too. If BIT takes liquid out of the plant on the spot, get some of that if possible, and also somehow get the antidote they give you daily so we can replicated it.  
Good luck  
Ralgo Lloyd.  
P.S. Please give the Dingo some water. And destroy this after memorizing what you need to get."

Zaji re-read his orders, then teared up the letter and threw it out the back of the wagon. He faced the Dingo, which sat beside him grooming it's very long feet. He rummaged in his bag that was sitting in a corner, and pulled out a canteen of water and poured some into a bowl from his bag. The Dingo quickly lapped up the water, and after it had drank it's fill it twitched an ear, hopped out the back of the wagon and ran with alarming speed back the way it came. Zaji put the canteen and bowl away in his bag and sat back. So, the supervisor wanted him to gather enough materials for them distinguish the plant and possibly find their own cure. That would be hard, but not as hard as getting a sample of the antidote. That was kept in the wagon that the whole BIT guardian unit sat in. He'd have to create a diversion or something, or bribe. But he had no money to bribe anyone with, so he couldn't take that route. He'd figure it out somehow, he had to.

Over the next couple of days, Zaji did everything exactly as Block asked, as much as he hated to. Zaji also discovered that he seemed to be getting better, he must be beating the sickenss somehow. He still pretended to be as bad off as before, so Block still gave him the antidote. Zaji still wanted to somehow get his revenge on Block before he would split, but the would reach the forest in the next day or so, and he still didn't know how to best repay Block for what he did. And continued to do. Zaji got more and more bruises every day, but they were easy to ignore if he just focussed on the task he was about to do. He also worried about Vashuka more, but he knew she'd be easy to free. The driver of the wagon he sat in would be watching over the Dingo once they were at the forest, since the whole BIT guardian unit would be going in with the scientists to make sure nothing attacked them.

The day they arrived at the forest, Block didn't bother tormenting Zaji, and pretty much ignored the Bee. Zaji didn't mind, it was better than getting the bastards attention. Block ordered everyone about, and quickly set up teams. Two BIT Guardians protected each scientist, and each team would be apart from each other to gather as much of the plants as possible. At the camp, some other scientists unpacked and assembled equipment whose functions eluded Zaji. Zaji was to stay at the camp with some of the other BIT guardians, in case Gaichuu came.

Zaji started talking to one of the scientists, feigning interest in the little station they had set up.

"So, what do you do to the plant stuff?" Zaji asked the lead scientist. He was young, and highly energetic. He also had a bit of sympathy for Zaji, so he answered the questions freely.

"Well, we extract the juices from the leaves by smushing them up and putting the pulp in this-" He gestured to a large glass bowl sitting on a burner. "-and we put a fluid in that's completely neutral in every way, and it's the medium which helps carry the leaf juice. We'll jar it up and store it."

"Do you use any other part of the plant?"

"Yeah, pretty much everything. It has a flower on top, and it releases a lot of oils that are actually meant to catch bugs,since it's a carnivorous plant, and those oils will be gathered carefully, and put in their own jars undilated. We also take the white milky substance from the plants stalk cores. The bark it has is useless, but on the inside the plants flesh is quite useful."

"Why do you use so many parts of the plant? Wouldn't each part have the same stuff that fights the illness?"

"Well, the milky suff from the stalks is the weakest, and it more or less just boosts a persons immune system to help them NOT get sick in the first place. The leaves juices don't fight off the illness, just stops it from getting worse, like the stuff you take every day is just the leaf juice with that neutral fluid."

"So what does the oil from the flowers do?"

"That's what actually kills the illness bacteria and microbes. It's what kills the bugs it catches, and it works for this illness too."

Zaji didn't know what the heck a microbe was, but it seemed the oils was the the best bet.

"Do you have to do anything to the oil?"

"Yes actually, we have to somewhat neutralize it and usually mix it with some of the stalks milky stuff, since the oil straight up will actually harm a person. Are you interested in sciences?"

He asked suddenly, watching Zaji with avid interest. He loved talking about his work it seemed. Zaji thought quickly and came up with the best response possible.

"Yeah, but I never get to do much being a Bee and all." He said and the scientist bought it.

"Wonderful, you can be my assistant!" He said and clapped Zaji on the shoulder.

"You can help me mix stuff up and I'll show you how it's done, and then you can package the bottles up for me since no one else seems to do it properly, they're not interest at all in this."  
The scientist shook his head and muttered something about slackers. Zaji couldn't believe it, he just got a front door to easily getting the stuff he needed. And it seemed that that would cover the daily antidote, since it was just the leaf juice mixed with the neutral fluid.

For the rest of the day, Zaji hung around the scientist at his station and helped him unpack and set up the tools. The scientist gave him a little notebook, and told him to keep notes on the process. Zaji did so, writing down the names of the neutralizing fluid, the plant itself and what parts did what. After a while, some teams came back from the forest carrying bags of leaves, flowers, stalks and roots. Zaji helped the scientist weigh out the leaves and extract the juices, and deal with cutting down the stalks and roots.

"What do the roots do? They're pretty much like the stalk right?" Zaji asked, after cutting a root into one-inch sections.

"Yeah, but the liquid from it is thinner and not as potent."

Zaji just nodded and continued on his work. It took hours and hours, but eventually they had a lot of bottles of fluid. Bigger ones that had the leaf juice diluted, small ones for the powerful and harmful oils, and medium-sized ones that carried the white milky stuff from the the stalks and roots. The plants themselves were tall, almost as tall as Zaji, so he gave up hope bringing back to the Hive a whole one. And Zaji had the entire process and how to do everything to make a cure written down, which was a big plus.

"Okay, now we need to package the stuff up. The crates are full of wood chips, so the bottles will be put in there with chips to seperate them so they don't clink around and break." The scientist said and was about to pick up a bunch of bottles, when some other scientist called him over to see something. He hurried over, and Zaji grabbed up the bottles and took them to the wagon. He dutifully packed them, but he also snuck some into the bag he was carrying with him. He got two bottles of leaf juice, three of the oil, and three of the milky stuff. He also put his notebook into the bag, and then quickly left the wagon before anyone would notice what he was doing. Once he came back out, it seemed that supper was soon to be served. The young scientist saw Zaji and motioned for him to come sit by him, in front of the fire. Zaji did, and the young man started talking to the Bee.

"So, how long have you been interested in the sciences?" He asked, quite happy.

"For a year or so now." Zaji said, and watched him nod.

"Once we get back, maybe you can apprentice under me!" He looked about to explode with happiness, and Zaji couldn't help smiling. This guy was ridiculus, though Zaji did feel a bit bad about pretending to be interested in this and using him to gather what he needed before spliting. He noticed Block sudenly watching him in curisity, and hoped that he wasn't onto Zaji and his plans. Soon, they ate supper, and Zaji half- listened to the young scientist babble about his work, and how he did some things and what should never be done. Soon, they all split off to go to sleep, and Zaji felt a large, blocky hand on his shoulder.

"You're on night guard. And here's your antidote." Block said and handed him a cup of the leaf juice. Zaji drank it, making a face at how bad it tasted. Block then motioned for Zaji to follow him, and he got up and mumbled a goodnight to the scientist, who looked sad to see Zaji go. Zaji followed Block to the side of one of the wagons that wasn't visible from the rest of the camp. He put both big hands on Zajis shoulders.

"Sudenly interested in sciences eh?" He said. Zaji didn't say or do anything. Block stared at him, and leaned down untill his face was barely an inch from Zaji's.

"If I see you doing anything suspicious, you'll regret ever being born." Block said in a low, menacing voice. He stayed with his face hovering close to Zaji's for a moment, with an odd expression, but then he finally stood up and left the Bee. Zaji sighed in relief, not noticing that he had held his breath the whole time. He went around the wagon, and a bit away from the camp to sit on a hill. He looked outward at the barren landscape around them and at the lush forest behind him. He wanted to free Vashuka right now and get out, but Jiggy wouldn't know to get him and Zaji didn't feel like outrunning the whole BIT caravan. He'd have to wait untill tomorow unfortunately. He felt bad for his poor Dingo, beinh tied up so long. He knew they fed her, but not enough. She was probably a bit dehydrated too, and more than a bit stiff. Thankfully she'd be easy to free, with the driver watching over her tomorow.  
Zaji stayed awake for a couple hours, then another BIT guardian came to relieve him and take over watch. Zaji gratefully went to the wagon to sleep, and notied that the driver wasn't there. He must have been in the wagon with Vashuka. Zaji settled down and did his best to sleep, but it still took a while.

When Zaji awoke, it was to a BIT Guardain shaking him awake.

"Today your guarding a team, I'll be your partner. Let's go." And the BIT guardian left the wagon sudenly, leaving Zaji to yawn and stretch. Once Zaji left the wagon though, he noticed the cook putting away his pot and cooking tools. The other BIT guardians laughed at Zaji, and the Bee realised they purposely waited for breakfast to be done before waking him, so he got not food. He felt a bit of anger, but held it back.

"Hey." Zaji turned to see the young scientist behind him, holding a bread bun.

"I saved this for you, can't protect us on an empty stomach. Don't try to eat any plant by the way, almost everything in there is poisonous." He said and smiled hugely at Zaji. Zaji thanked him and ate the bun as he went to go find out who he'd be protecting. It was an old, very boring scientist who had a low, drawling voice. Zaji, the scientist, and the other BIT guardian on the team went into the forest, carrying some bags and cutting tools. Once they found a spot that had a bunch of plants, the scientist got to work at once, efficently cutting the long thin stalks and stripping off the huge leaves that were as big as Zaji's head. Each plant had only five or six leaves, and one large bright pink, red, or orange flower on the top. When neither one was looking, Zaji grabbed a couple leaves and stuffed them into his bag silently, figuring it never hurt to have the actual raw materials as well as the extracted fluids. He also grabbed a section of stalk that rolled away from the busy scientist, and stuffed that in his bag too.

He wandered around the little area bit, and when BIT guardian was facing the other, and the scientist was busy, Zaji snatched a flower off the top of one of the shorter plants, and pulled a tin out of his pocket. The tin was meant to hold a couple cigars, but Zaji never filled it with anything and just carried it around out of habit. It used to be his father's and it came in useful for holding the delicate flower. Zaji put it in his bag, and went back to patrolling around.

After the scientist had harvested and cut up about ten plants, they carried the bags back to the camp. They made several trips like this throughought the day, and once it was suppertime Zaji was glad to be done. He was feeling better and not coughing so much, but he was still sick and got tired quickly. He ate his supper silently, listening to the young scientist again before heading heading back to the wagon he was staying in apart from eveyone else. He made sure all the others seemed busy enough and that Block was occupied talking to a scientist, before quickly taking off his BIT uniform and replacing it with his Bee one. Before he got his jacket, hat and scarf on though he wrapped the bottles of plant fluid with the BIT Guardian uniform so they wouldn't break. After getting the bag ready, Zaji grabbed the jacket and was about to put it on when he heard someone jump onto the wagon and spun around, to face Block.

"What are you in a hurry about, little Bee?" He said and stepped closer. Zaji reached for his gun, but realized he hadn't put the holster on yet and it sat on the floor beside his jacket. Block stared at Zaji oddly, and the Bee couldn't tell what kind of expression he wore. Block stepped closer, but Zaji held his ground.

"What do you want?" Zaji asked boldly.

"To know what the hell you think your doing." Block said and grabbed the front of Zajis shirt and pulled him close.

"My Bee uniform is warmer." Zaji said. It was true, the BIT one was thin and let the windo through terribly, and Zaji almost never stopped shiverig with it on. Zaji wished he could do something to repay Block for his treatment, but nothing came to mind. And as soon as Block let him be, he would get Vashuka and split.

"You're planning on leaving, aren't you?" Block sked and Zaji tried not to show his surprise.

"No." Zaji lied, but he could tell Block saw through it.

"And I was planning to have some real fun with you once we got back and cured you." Block said with a wierd smile, and Zaji finally understood. Block looked at him with a weird expression so often, because he was attracted to Zaji, in some sick pedophile sort of way. The thought of that made Zaji very very uneasy and uncomfortable being so close to Block, but it also gave him an idea. Already grossed out with himself for what he was going to do, he grabbed the back of Blocks neck, leaned up and kissed him. Block didn't react at first, but then he moved his hands from the front of Zaji's shirt to the boys waist. Zaji felt like running, but he stayed where he stood. Block stuck his gross tongue into Zaji's mouth, and Zaji surpressed his gag reflex somehow. Blocks hand went below his waist, and thats when it was too much for him. He backed up, and Block just stepped forward with him. After a moment, though, Block seemed to realize what Zaji was doing and sudenly stepped back, a look of shock on his face.

"You little shit, you're still sick aren't you?" Block said and anger spread across his face spat on the floor. Zaji was angry too, but more at himself than Block. He was digusted with himself, but that was the best revenge he could get on Block, and realy hoped that Block would get sick before they could get back and give him a cure.

"Yeah." Zaji said and reached for his gun quickly, Block ran at him, ready to hit him. But Zaji smacked him across the face with the barrel of his Heat shotgun and grabbed up his bag, jacket, scarf and hat and ran from the wagon. He somehow got on his jacket over the bag, the scarf and hat, and strapped on his gun holster before making it to the wagon Vashuka was in. The moment Zaji entered, the driver saw him in the Bee uniform and freed Vashuka without a word, quickly taking the chains off her paws and the muzzle off her mouth. Vashuka stood up instantly and stretched and yawned, her bones creeking. Zaji fell to his kness and hugger her, and she rubbed her head agianst Zaji's.

He heard Block shouting, and stood up.

"Thank you for all your help, good luck to you. What's your name?" Zaji said quickly. The driver smiled.

"Good luck to you, and I used to be a Letter Bee myself, the names Train." He said and Zaji nodded and jumped off the wagon, with his Dingo right behind him. He faced a row of BIT guardians and Block, all looking ready to attack. Zaji saw the young scientist, looking shocked and scared.

"Sorry, but I don't care one bit about science." He said and then aimed his gun at a BIT guardian. He concentrated all his hatred and malice into the shot, the brilliant and shinning Heart bullet flying from the barrel of his gun. The BIT guardian flew back and hit the ground and the others either scattered or ran at the Bee. Zaji was glad to finally have a release for his anger, and he punched and kicked the attacking BIT people. Vashuka mauled hem over with glee, happy to be free. Block didn't bother to attack, just watched Zaji fight them off with his Dingo at his side. After a moment, the Bee and everyone else heard a motor. They all froze, and Zaji ran in the direction it came from. A few people tried to chase him, but Vashuka roared fiercely and they ran the other way instantly. Zaji saw Jiggy Pepper come into view and drive his Heart motorbike right at him. Jiggy barely slowed, and Zaji jumped into the sidecar and moved over, and Vashuka hopped in as well. It was a tight squeeze, but they fit. Jiggy gunned the motor and took off at a freakish speed, getting away from BIT as fast as possilbe. They heard shouts, but no there was no pursuit since they only had the slow wagons.

Zaji didn't know why, but he laughed, and he felt so good to be free. Jiggy smiled and whistled to his Dingo, who flew ahead of them.

"Happy to get out eh?" Jiggy said.

"You have no idea." Zaji replied and leaned against his Dingo. Jiggy handed him a couple pairs of goggles, and Zaji put one on him and one on Vashuka.

"Did you get what you were suposed to?" Jiggy asked over the rushing wind.

"Yeah, and more." Zaji said and they fell silent. He couldn't wait to get back to the Hive, he really wanted to see Connor and Lag, and to see how Aria was doing. He tried not to think of what he did with Block, but it was hard since it felt like he had slime in his mouth and he still felt grossed out. That man was so despicable, he hoped he got really sick and died painfully. He wanted to shoot him before going, but taking care of the ones actually trying to attack him was more important. Vashuka purred and rubbed her head against Zaji's, and he stopped thinking about the negative things.

So sorry about the long chapter. I honestly don't know why people dislike long chapters, but I am sorry. Almost 7k words. It was suposed to be two chapters, but things have been messing up and I don't want to spend hours trying to fix it.  
And if Zaji kissing Block to get him sick seems stupid to you, don't even try to complain about it, since complaining will change nothing at all. Besides, I myself tried to find a way to get Block sick and that was the best option that came to mind, other options were like Zaji spitting in the soup pot but that might have got EVERYONE sick, and even though he hates BIT he didn't want to get the scientists sick, or the wagon driver that was nice to him. And also spitting ina pot of soup might have thinned out the bacteria enough that no one would get sick.

Next chapter is the last one.

If there are any super-obvious spelling mistakes on the right side of each paragraph, thats because my somputer screen has a big huge crack on the right side and I can't see anything over there. Makes writing some stuff a total blit.


	8. Chapter 8

This is the last chapter of the story Vaccine. Near the end theres a bit of. . .Angst I think it'd be? Something like that. Anyways, it's left off in a way that leaves it open for a sequal, since I might wright more about BIT and all them. Don't ask what'd be in the sequal, I don't even know that yet!  
Thanks to all those who reviewed, and those who were pateint and waited for a chapter update for the couple months I was inactive. I'm sorry to make you wait!  
And also, those of you who like this story and might want a sequal to read, please answer the following questions in a review (I discovered how to read reviews! Yay!)  
The sequal, if there is one, will center mostly around Zaji again, also Connor since they'll be shairing delivery routes. Do you want also Lag to be featured more, or Jiggy Pepper? I can also feature both of them, but that means that each get less "screentime" so one or the other would be best.  
And, would you want there to be romance? I realise now that I ended the chapter with implied shipping between both Zaji and Connor, and Zaji and Sylvette (not intentional) So err. . .wondering what you think on that!  
Also, suggestions for names of BIT people would be nice. I suck so bad at making names ("Block" is a great example of that!) If you have name suggestions, please tell me.  
I need three names for the BIT scientists, one is the happy young guy that Zaji talked to and got the cure from, another is an old, grumpy and brutally mean scientist guy, and the third is an old woman who is sort kinda a little bit insane.

Jiggy Pepper and Zaji arrived at the Hive in the Yuusari capital after a couple days of fast riding. Zaji had written his report as they stopped for breaks along the way, so that he could hand it in the moment they reached the Hive. Though the moment he stepped out of the sidecar, he suddenly got jumped by someone a bit taller and much large than him, giving him a deathgrip hug and squishing all the air out of him.

"Zaji I was so worried about you!" Came the voice of Connor Culh. Zaji struggled a bit, and he heard Jiggy laugh. Connor droped him and smiled at him.

"Geez Connor, if you'd have squeezed any harder you would a squished my lungs into nothing." Zaji said, but he smiled too. "Come on, I got an important report to make."

"Zaji!" And sudenly Lag was there, and he was so exuberant in running and hugging Zaji they fell right over onto the cobblestone road.

"Ack Lag!" Zaji said and shoved the little Bee off of him.

"I'm glad your all right." Lag said and smiled. Zaji got up and grumbled a bit about Lag being too hyper.

"Okay, like I was saying, I got a report to make. And if you broke the bottles I'm gonna come and strangle you." Zaji said and smirked at Lag.

"Bottles?" Connor asked, and Zaji realised that no one probably knew about it.

"Come on, I'm probably gonna be asked for a verbal report and I don't want to tell it twice." Zaji said and motioned for his two friends to follow. Jiggy followed them in turn, seeming very amused at the three of them.

Zaji got to the supervisors office and knocked. The four Bee's waited a few seconds before Ralgo told them to come in. Once they entered he looked up and smiled, seeming highly relieved.

"Zaji, Jiggy, you came back in one piece!" He said happily.

"Yeah." Zaji said and put his bag on the desk and shoved it in Ralgo's direction. The man looked curious and excited, and opened the bag and pulled out Zaji's report, glancing at it before putting it on top of a pile of papers. He pulled out the notebook and opened it.

"Whats this?"

"The cure." Zaji said and did his best not to smirk at everyones expressions.

"Seriously?" The supervisor asked after a bit, getting his head together again.

"Yeah, I just had to pretend to be interested in science and a scientist got all happy and told me everything that is needed, how to do it, and what part of the plant to use. I wrote everything down, he even gave me the notebook." Zaji said.

"Did you get everything else?"

"Yeah. And I know what the one-day antidot is, it's just the leaf juice. It's all in that book and in my report."

"I'll get this to the people that need it. Anything else thats important enough to not wait for me to read the report?"

"They have a preventive medicine, but they're not giving it to anyone but there own. It stops people from getting sick unless your contact is. . .extreme." Zaji said and surpressed a shudder. He still felt like he had slime in his mouth.

"Hmph." The supervisor sat down finally. "And Jiggy, you encountered no trouble?"

"Nope, everything was normal. I nearly got caught though, when I helped Zaji fight a Gaichuu when he was too ill and they didn't let him use his Dingo, but they didn't even know someone was following them otherwise."

"Speeking of being ill, you look much better then it sounded you would." The supervisor eyed Zaji intently for a moment, before his eyes wandered back to the little notebook.

"I think my body has fought off the illness, since the temporary antidote supressed the sickness enough for me to grow more immune to it, I actually feel perfectly fine today and I haven't had any antidote for a few days."

"I'll still suggest going to see Dr. Thunderland for a quick exam, to make sure you don't have any lingering effects." The supervisor said and picked up Zaji's report, and waved a hand dissmissevly. The Bees took this as their leave, and quietly left the room.

"So, what happened?" Connor asked. Zaji sighed.

"I'll tell you after the exam thing." Zaji said. He didn't like Dr. Thunderland very much, he was creepy. "I'll see you after, okay?"

"Yeah. Hey, it'll be dinner soon why don't you come over to Sylvettes? Connors already coming." Lag said. Zaji smiled.

"Sure, that'd be great." And he meant it. Sylvette's food (except for her awful soup) would be a thousand times better than what he ate with BIT. He left the others, saying a last thank you to Jiggy Pepper. He walked along, alone, to Dr. Thunderland's office. The door was open and he walked right in, once again wondering why he had such massive iron-bound doors for. He saw him standing at the end of the room and he came up behind the doctor. He seemed to be mixing two fluids, one of which Zaji saw was a neutralizer. He shook his head, remembering the young scientist that was so happy and excited.

"Hey." Zaji said and smirked when Dr. Thunderland jumped a foot in the air, and yelled out in fright.

"Damn it Bee, don't scare me like that!" He said, clutching at his heart.

"The supervisor said I need an exam to make sure I'm not still sick." Zaji said and the doctor seemed to just realize who the Bee was.

"Zaji, your back! Wait, you got better? Did you get a permanent cure?"

"No, I just got better."

And the doctor examined him, while asking him questions about his symptoms and what went away and got better first. Zaji answered dutifully, but didn't bother with the small talk Thunderland tried to start up.

"I need to take some blood." He said sudenly.

"What? Why? You just said I was better." Zaji said. He didn't like needles.

"You got better, possibly because of that day-to-day antidote fought it off long enough for your body to become immune, but there might be another reason. It wont be much, I just need to see whats in your blood, it might help us understand this more. Please?"

"Ahh. . .All right, but only a little!" Zaji muttered an the doctor smiled. He looked the other way when his blood was being taken, but looked back when he heard a surprised mutter from the doctor.

"What?"

"Your blood is quite thin, like extremely. Were you dizzy today?"

"I don't know, I was sitting in the sidecar of Jiggy Pepper's motorbike the whole time and then I got pummeled by Lag and Connor. I wouldn't have noticed if I were." Zaji didn't mention that after seeing his own blood being drawn he felt dizzy, he just looked away.

"Um, yes. . .Ah." The doctor sounded flustered.

"What?" Zaji said without looking back.

"I did only mean to take a little, but your bloods just too thin. Press this to your arm there." He said and handed Zaji a small cloth. He pressed it to the spot he had taken blood and Thunderland went to a table and brought back a little stick. he struck it on a table and it lit up like a match.

"Lift the cloth" he said and blew out the stick, it remained smoking and smelling strongly like sulphur. Zaji did as he was told, and the stick was pressed to the little puncture, staunching the bloodflow and burning the skin.

"You must be realy careful not to cut yourself, and come back tomorow after some rest and food so I can see if your blood's still thin. This might be because of the illness. . ." He said and trailed off.

"Okay. See you later." Zaji got off the table he was sitting on and left abruptly. He was dizzy, but he walked straight and didn't show it. He found Vashuka in the hall, where she stayed when he went in. He pet her on the head and she rubbed against his leg.

He left the Hive with his Dingo following, and walked slowly to Sylvettes. He was a bit dizzy, but it was fading. He reached the building where Sylvette lived, and as he knocked on her door he could smell something cooking. Sylvette opened the door and smiled at him.

"Lag said he invited you, come on in." She said sweetly and he entered and closed the door after Vashuka. She yawned and stretched out on the floor by the door, where Gazu, Connors bloodhound Dingo was sleeping. The dog and cat cuddled up together a bit

"Odd pair." Sylvette said and smiled. Zaji followed her into the room where Lag, Connor, and Jiggy Pepper sat at a table.

"I didn't see your bike outside." Zaji said as he sat across from Jiggy, beside Connor. Jiggy smiled.

"I left it at a friends."

"And was kind enough to bring some meat." Sylvette said. Jiggy smiled at her and continued talking to Lag. They appeared to be talking about Dead End Town, also called Kyrie, where Jiggy's little sister Neri lived.

"So, Zaji, what all happened at the caravan? Why'd you even go?" Connor asked after a bit. Lag and Jiggy stopped talking and watched Zaji. Zaji sighed and thought about it for a moment before speaking.

"They were going to pay me a lot, and I figured it would be good to help them find their cure." Zaji said.

"As much as we hate them, and as bad as the things they did to you are, they at least did get to those plants." Jiggy said thoughfully.

"Yeah, but the cure's gonna cost money that a lot can't afford. I couldn't afford if I had to buy it, and if I didn't get better on my own I would've died." Zaji said and they all stared at him.

"You never mentioned that." Jiggy said.

"Oh. . .I heard it a little before you got me out of there. It's in my report anyways, so the supervisor will know."

"Did they treat you badly?" Connor asked his voice emotionless.

"Yeah, but I don't want to talk about it." Zaji said. Thankfully he was spared having to say more by Sylvettes announcement that supper was ready. Zaji ate it gratefully, happy to finally have real food where he didn't have to worry about being poisoned or something.

"Sorry, but we only got a couch for you Zaji." Sylvette said sudenly. This confused Zaji.

"What?"

"For a place to stay, at least for tonight?" She said.

"Oh, right, I forgot." Zaji said.

"Forgot what?" Lag asked. Zaji was surprised Sylvette didn't tell him, but was glad in a way.

"I got evicted the same day I left with the caravan." Zaji said. Lag and Connor stared at him for a moment. Zaji ignored them and continued eating, trying to imply he didn't want to talk about that either. After the supper, Jiggy said his good byes and left. Lag looked like he was falling asleep at the table, so Sylvette suggested he go to bed. He complied quickly and muttered exhausted good-nights to everyone, Niche sleepily following him.

"Zaji, you'll be okay right?" Connor asked, sounding more serious than he normally did.

"What, in body or mind?" Zaji scoffed.

"Both." Connor said and smiled a bit. Zaji stopped to think about it, and was surprised at how he suddenly wanted to tell Connor everything. Finally being around someone that was a friend and not an enemy probably was the cause for that.

"I got beat up a lot every day, and couldn't fight back since they wouldn't give me the antidote, but my body is healing from that. I was scared I was going to die a lot though. . .Especially at first when I wasn't getting better with the temporary antidote they gave me. I had to do what they told me, all the time, otherwise they'd not give me the antidote. I don't think. . .That I can ever look at a BIT person and not feel like shooting them or something."

"They beat you? Every day?" Connor asked in angry surprise.

"Yeah. Mostly that Block guy."

"Block?"

"The head bastard, I dont know his name but if you saw him you'd see why he's Block." Zaji smirked a bit at that, then shuddered.

"Was there anyone nice there?" Sylvette asked, probably trying to steer the conversation away from something that upset Zaji so much.

"Yeah, the guy that drove wagon I was confined too used to be a Letter Bee, and he hated them all as much as I did. He helped me escape even. And the scientist I kinda bugged was nice, I feel a bit bad about pretending to be interested in what he had to say."

"How are you in mind?" Connor asked and sipped at a cup of milk.

"I don't know." Zaji said honestly and sudenly felt very tired. Connor and Sylvette looked at him in sympathy, wich annoyed him.

"I think I need some rest." He said and Sylvette nodded.

"Yeah, I need to get home. See you later." Connor said and got up. "Goodnight Zaji, Sylvette, thanks for supper!" He said and went out the door, closing it quietly behind him. Sylvette rolled ahead in her wheelchair and locked it.

"I'll show you to the couch." She said. Vashuka got up and followed them into the livingroom area, yawning. On the couch there was a pillow and a blanket. Zaji thank her and laid down, falling asleep almost instantly. It was his first decent sleep in a while, and he didn't have any strange dreams or ever woke up once. His Dingo slept beside the couch, purring and twtiching ocasionally."Zaji, wake up. Shh." He sudenly heard the voice of Sylvette in his ear and he awoke instantly. She was in pajamas, and she looked worried.

"What's going on?" Zaj whispered, sitting up slowly and drawing his gun.

"Someones banging on the door shouting for you. Who knows your here?" She asked, not accusingly, just worried.

"No one. . ." Zaji said and tried to think, who knew he was going to Sylvettes for supper? As far as he knew, just Jiggy and Connor.

"I want my money!" A loud shout answered Zaji's question. He groaned and went to the door.

"Sorry, I didn't know he'd cause trouble." Zaji said to Sylvette. He unlocked and opened the door, with Sylvette at one side and Vashuka at the other. Zaji's old landlord stared for a moment, an Zaji realised they must look a bit odd. A girl in a wheelchair wearing her pajamas, himself with bags under his eyes, messy hair, pale skin and wearing only his pants and a partially unboutoned white shirt, and a ruffled looking huge black cat that was yawning and looking grumpy.

"You!" He found his voice finally and held up an envelope. "You didn't pay me last months rent!"

"Yeah I did, I only stayed for a week that month before you kicked me out, so why should I pay for a full month?" Zaji said cooly and glared at him.

"Well, you'll have to pay for damages!" He said. Zaji laughed.

"I fixed up that drafty, leaky, cold little place so it's actually warm, if anything you should owe ME money."

"The cats did damage!"

"They did not, I made sure of that. I trained them very well."

"You owe me!" He had come to a full loop now, obviously flustured.

"I don't care if you bother me, but bothering Sylvette Seude and Lag Seeing at their place of residince for matters that don't concern them is technically a fineable offence." Zaji said and closed the door in his face, and yawned. They heard him grumble, but the cranky guy left quickly.

"Sorry about that. He didn't cause you any trouble when I was gone did he? He must have seen me visit you before leaving." Zaji looked at her with an apologetic expression.

"No, never seen him before." She said and rolled to the kitchen. Zjai followed and sat at the table, feeling a bit dizzy. Sylvette put a kettle of water on the stove and rolled back to where Zaji was.

"You feeling okay?" She asked. She could tell something was wrong.

"Dizzy."

"You've just been through too much in the past while. Why don't you stay here for a couple days before looking for another place? You need some rest and good food." Sylvette said.

"I don't want to impose."

"Don't worry about it." She said and rolled back to the stove to take the whisteling kettle off. She poured hot water into a couple of cups and put teabags in them. She handed one to Zaji, who took it and wrapped his hands around it.

"Do you know any good cheap places?" Zaji asked after a moment. Sylvette looked thoughtful, and shook her head.

"Almost everywhere that isn't being rented right now has it's prices going up from the taxes. Thankfully my own place hasn't gone up in price." She said and Zaji nodded.

"I'll find someplace somehow, I always do."

"You've lived in a lot of places?"

"Yeah, I get kicked out a lot." Zaji started sipping the hot tea slowly. It tasted like lemon and honey.

"Why?"

"I'm not there when I'm suposed to be, to give them the rent, or they wont take rent money early if I'm gonna be gone, some decide that Vashuka isn't sanitary, a lot of made up stuff it seems as well. Just bad luck, but I aways find another place."

"Have you even not found a place? Like been homeless?" Sylvette asked and Zaji didn't reply for a minute. Eventually he nodded, and drank the last of his tea.

"Yeah, but never more than a week."

"Where would you sleep?"

"Sometimes at the Hive, sometimes at Connor's place."

"Good morning." Lag's voice interupted them, and they looked around to see him coming down the stairs in his Bee uniform, with Niche following him and rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"Morning." Zaji said. He stood up and went to the living room with his Dingo following. He put on the rest of his Bee uniform and buttoned up his shirt.

"Going somewhere?" Sylvette asked.

"Yeah, followup exam." Zaji said and didn't elaborate. He went to the door, and Sylvette pulled on his sleeve. He looked down at her, and he saw in her face a caring expression that he usually never saw.

"Come back for some food later, and you'll always have a place to stay here." She said and Zaji smiled.

"Thanks. See you later." He waved to Lag, who was now drinking lemon tea, and left. He walked slowly to the Hive, both hands in his pockets. The cobbled street was mostly empty, and in the houses life was stirring. People were going out to work, men were kissing their wives at the door and saying bye to their children, many looked happy and content. Zaji envied them sudenly. Having a stable home, a family. He rarely missed his parents anymore, but he did now, and quite strongly. He wanted someone to come home to, not just Vashuka. Heck, he didn't have to go home to see Vashuka, she was always with him. He stopped and looked up a the sky, seeing the countless stars looking down on him. He sighed and closed his eyes, feeling sad, and something else he couldn't describe. Like he was missing something, like there was a hole. He felt empty.

"Hey Zaji, something wrong?" He heard Connors voice behind him and he slowly lowered his head and opened his eyes again. He didn't say anything just turned to see Connor come up beside him.

"Hey, Connor." Zaji said and started walking slowly. Connor matched his pace, and behind them their Dingos walked side-by-side cpmanionably.

"Are you gonna look for a place to stay today?" Connor asked curiously

"Yeah, I don't want to impose on Sylvette." Zaji said.

"Theres a place near where I live that's cheap, but the apartments are small. They allow Dingos and pets, as long as they don't go to other parts of the building." Connor said and grinned at Zaji's face. Connor had somehow found a place that would let him keep the cats? Amazing!

"Really? Can you show me after I get back from the exam?"

"Wasn't your exam yesterday?"

"Yeah but aparantly I had realy thin blood and he needs to see if it still is. He hinted it might be because of the antidote."

"What would happen if you got a cut with thin blood? It'd bleed a lot?"

"Yeah."

"Be careful."

"You care too much about my health."

"How can I not?" Connor said and looked at Zaji. He was still smiling, but then his expression got serious.

"Aria's going to be the first for them to test the stuff you brought back." The bigger Bee said and they both fell silent. All the Bees would be sad if Aria died, and all hoped for her to get better.

"Hey, if I got better she can too. She's an adult, and a very healthy one at that." Zaji said, trying to be optimistic. It didn't work very well.

"Oh yeah, we get a team choice. All the Bees have to team up for a while, to be safe that BIT dosen't do anything. You can either team up with me, or Jiggy Pepper for all future deliveries." Connor said once they got to the Hive.

"You." Zaji said. Connor smiled.

"I'll go tell the supervisor, and then I'll wait here for you after your done the exam." Connor said and they parted ways. Zaji this time knocked on the huge open door to Dr. Thunderlands office and then entered.

"Ahh, Zaji, I was expecting you." He said and motioned for Zaji to sit on the table again. The Bee shrugged off his jacket and got on the table, and once again looked away while Thunderland drew blood.

"Your blood is still thin. And I think it is because of the antidote they gave you, I'll have to tell them to put a blood thickener in it. Okay, done." Zaji got off the table and almost fell, sudenly dizzy. The doctor caught him and made the Bee lean against him.

"Just stand there for a moment before moving. Sit up and down slowly, and don't move fast or do anything that would get your blood flowing fast."

Zaji nodded and after he wasn't so dizzy, he left, waving goodbye over his shoulder. Vashuka was sitting by Connor and Gazu in the main hall, and Zaji laughed to see them cuddled up. Vashuka was a lot bigger than Gazu, and her neck was the bloodhounds pillow.

"Odd pair." Zaji said, mirroring Sylvettes words from last night. Vashuka got up and nudged Zaji's leg, purring.

"Yeah. You look dizzy." Connor said.

"Let's just go slow."

Connor lead Zaji slowly through Yuusari, to the area where he lived. There was a tall building that had a lot of apartments in it and they went in. The building was clean enough, not run-down and it seemed perfect, the price was low enough for Zaji, but just barely. After talking with the landlord, who was quite nice and seemed to understand that he couldn't get paid right away, Zaji agreed to move in the next day.

"Thanks Connor." Zaji said after they left. Connor smiled at him in response.

"Oh yeah, you and I both have about a week off, for you to get all the way better and rest up."

"I'm gonna be so bored." Zaji said and groaned. Connor grinned at him.

Zaji indeed was bored, but he got as much rest as he needed, and a last test before the end of his week off, he was deemed healthy enough to go and deliver letters. There was still the risk of BIT trying to capture Bees, so Connor and Zaji would be going everywhere together. Their routes were combined, the first half was like Connors, and the second half was like Zaji's route. Zaji still had lot of resentment and hate towards BIT, but he felt that at least he did something worthwhile, bringing the plants that were the cure back to the supervisor so that BIT weren't the only ones that had the cure.


End file.
